Between the 29th and 30th of November, the SFPE Engineering Solutions Symposium for Fire Safety and Sustainable Building Design took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, organized by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) and in partnership with the FRISSBE project and team.

The event was opened with a welcome from Chris Jelenewicz, CEO of SFPE, followed by a speech by Matjaž Han, the Slovenian minister of Economy, Tourism and Sport. He thanked SFPE, SBRA and SZPV, and expressed gratitude and praise to ZAG, who was represented by our Director Aleš Žnidarič, for its focus on cutting-edge research and international cooperation. Towards the end of his speech, he emphasized that “In a period of increasing impacts of climate change strategic collaboration between the fields of fire safety and sustainable building design is not only advisable, rather it is essential.”

He continued: “Therefore, I would like to thank you for your efforts and wish you a successful event, full of exchange of knowledge and experience. If you are successful, and I believe you will be, your work will shape the future of our built environment and leave a legacy of safe, sustainable, and adaptable buildings that will stand the test of time.”

With more than 100 attendees from around the globe, the 2-day event explored different topics related to the connection between sustainability and fire safety engineering, among other. The invited speakers were a wide variety of experts in the field, both from academia and industry, that shared their knowledge and best practices during their presentations, followed by discussion panels to facilitate deeper discussions of the presented topics.

During the event, Prof Grunde Jomaas, the ERA chair for the FRISSBE project, presented the characteristics and objectives of the FRISSBE project , and the FRISSBE senior researchers Dr Andrea Lucherini and Dr Ulises Rojas Alva shared the on-going research within the FRISSBE team, such as their work on merging fire safety and sustainability, advanced wood products and mass timber buildings, fire safety of photovoltaic panels (PVs), the assessment of the fire performance of façade systems, and the fire safety of lithium-ion batteries.

Participants from ZAG were Aleš Jug, Andrea Lucherini, Friderik Knez, Grunde Jomaas, Ines Cilenti, Kirils Simakovs, Martin Veit, Matija Uršič, Nataša Knez, Nik Rus, Nika Stopar, Sabina Jordan, Tamara Želimorski, Ulises Rojas Alva and Urška Blumauer.

Following the main event, on the 1st of December, the symposium participants were invited to the ZAG Fire Laboratory in Logatec to observe a live fire test of a full-scale loaded cross-laminated timber (CLT) wall element, sponsored by Stora Enso. The Fire Lab at ZAG ensured a well-executed test on the full-scale wall element. During this event, the FRISSBE senior researcher Dr Andrea Lucherini gave a presentation entitled “Fire engineering and research needs in future timber buildings”, showcasing the importance of research in ensuring the fire safety of timber buildings to foster their success for future sustainable constructions.