A new $1 million prize is being launched in Barcelona this month for a retrofitted building which can remain zero-carbon for a year.

The award, the biggest competition of its kind, is the work of Canadian philanthropist Ron Dembo who made his fortune selling financial software to banks before selling his business, Algorithmics, for $175 million in 2005.

His new company, Zerofootprint, has been set up to help companies manage carbon emissions.

Dembo said buildings alone are responsible for 40% of North America's greenhouse gases and is aiming to come up with a retrofitting method that can be applied to building across the globe.

He said he hoped the competition would result in a "cost-effective, energy efficient solution, scalable to a large number of buildings and deployed globally".

The contest, which has been named the International Building Re-Skinning Competition, will judge retrofits of concrete building built between 1945 and 1990.

It is being judged by a number of architects and environmentalists including Andrew Bowerbank, executive director of the World Green Building Council, and Judith DiMaio, the dean of the New York School of architecture & Design.

For more information, visit www.zerofootprint.net

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