RICS is seeking members from the Americas for the Advisory Panel for a major new initiative that RICS is developing with the Environment Institute of University College London, UK. This is an ambitious new initiative of international scope, to create an index of the capacity of various countries around the world to move towards a zero carbon built environment. The index will be directly relevant to policymaking communities at a range of scales as well as to sustainability-conscious investors, occupiers and developers.

The research team based at the Environment Institute comprises Professor Yvonne Rydin (Project Director) and Suzanne Maguire (RICS Research Fellow). The project commenced in Nov 2007 and we are aiming to launch the index in November 2008. Thereafter, it is envisaged that the index will be periodically updated and published along with a commentary, possibly at annual intervals. The index is expected to be applied to a wide range of countries from almost every continent.

Our aim is to draw together people who have both property and sustainability expertise, and also to reflect the geographical scope of countries to which the index will be applied. We hope to include both practitioners and academics. Members will sit on the panel as individuals rather than as representatives of any organisation. In view of the overall mission of the project, we do not intend convening meeting of the group, which would inevitably involve large amounts of travel for all members, but will conduct the business by electronic means.

This represents a real opportunity for RICS to present and promote itself as a genuinely global organisation. We are keen to ensure that RICS Americas is fully involved in this initiative, which is an exciting and forward-looking new initiative contributing to understanding and monitoring of built environment responses to climate change as one of the major global challenges of our time.

The Advisory Panel will bring together prominent, active members of the international property and development community to help guide the conceptual development, technical creation and future refinement of the index, as well as to inform interpretation of countries' relative index scores. If you would be interested in becoming a member of the Index Advisory Panel, please get in touch with Stephen Brown, head of research at RICS (sbrown@rics.org), with details of your involvement in sustainability issues at the national level.