This week, 21-25th September, is World Green Building Week (WGBW).
WBGW is the annual campaign that empowers the green building community to deliver green buildings for everyone, everywhere. The campaign is organised by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) and is led by the global network of Green Building Councils and their 36,000 members. The network has galvanised over 135 events in more than 35 countries to run across the next 5 days.
This year’s theme is #ActOnClimate and urges individuals, businesses and communities to advocate for bolder and more ambitious regulations to drive uptake of net zero carbon buildings.
The Week has also prompted more than 100 organisations to endorse a Call to Action statement, urging all levels of government to implement policy to ensure the following:
- By 2030, all new buildings, infrastructure and renovations have at least 40% less embodied carbon with significant upfront carbon reduction, and all new buildings must be net zero operational carbon
- By 2050, new buildings, infrastructure and renovations will have net zero embodied carbon, and all buildings, including existing buildings, must be net zero operational carbon
We are proud to have supported 3 of the 10 new signatories sign up to the WGBC Net Zero commitment
Additionally, ahead of COP26 in November 2021, 10 new companies have pledged to take action on net zero buildings by signing the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, bringing the total number of signatories to 110. We are proud to have supported 3 of the 10 new signatories sign up to the WGBC Net Zero commitment, IPUT, Grainger Plc and Brunswick Real Estate
Our involvement with World and UK GBC
- Carbon Intelligence is also one of the 110 organisations that has signed up to Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. We sit on the UKGBC’s Net Zero Commitment Forum as part of this and provided specific feedback on using verification to as a replacement of certification of net zero
- We contributed to the UKGBC Guidance on Scope 3 for Buildings 2019 and are currently contributing to the World Green Building Council’s Scope 3 Guide.
- Our team sits on the UKGBC working group for Green Tariffs and Offsets and on the UKGBC Solutions Unit and Advancing Net Zero working group 2018/19
- We were part of the Advancing Net Zero Energy Use Intensity Metric Task Group in 2019/20
- Our Director of Sustainability, Sam Carson, sits on the UKGBC Future Leadership Forum Advisory Board and contributes to mass collaborations around net zero
It has never been more important to invest in our long-term sustainability
“As the devastation of global climate change continues to take its toll on our communities, livelihoods and health, it has never been more important to invest in our long-term sustainability. Making a broad scale shift to net zero buildings can dramatically and cost-effectively reduce our emissions to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Our industry is ready to deliver the solutions, but without ambitious regulation to enable the necessary shift to net zero buildings, the world will miss the climate goals of 2030.” – Cristina Gamboa, CEO of the World Green Building Council
Useful resources
- Download Net Zero: The Guide for Commercial Real Estate
- Watch our webinar with Federated Hermes and Aviva Investors on getting to net zero in the built environment
- Watch Edie Scope 3 emissions Masterclass
- Read about how we supported Canary Wharf Group become the first commercial district to set a science-based target
- Read about how our optimisation programme saved Aviva £1 million in costs and 2,600 tonnes of carbon