In association with Canada Green Building Council’s Accelerating to Zero Summit in Vancouver, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) announced that 50 signatories have now signed up to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment). These organizations have pledged to take urgent action to ensure their own portfolios of buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030.
The pledge also calls for cities, states and regions to establish regulations that ensure all new buildings operate at net zero carbon from 2030, and all buildings, including those that exist, operate at net zero carbon by 2050.
“We are inspired by the leadership action demonstrated by the early signatories to the Commitment. Reaching this significant milestone of over 50 signatories demonstrates that businesses are recognizing the value net zero buildings present to their operations; and policymakers are acting on the responsibility to their citizens to provide more efficient and healthier buildings for us to occupy every day. Our Green Building Councils are supporting their members to better understand how these targets can be applied in practice, and respond to the climate emergency facing us,” said Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council.
In addition to generating and obtaining renewable energy to meet reduced energy demand, the Commitment positions energy efficiency as a central component to achieving decarbonization.
This represents an effective, best practice approach to making sure buildings provide healthy and comfortable environments, and are futureproofed against climate impacts.
The announcement was followed by WorldGBC’s release of its Advancing Net Zero Status Report 2019. The report details efforts to take on the challenge of decarbonizing the global building stock, and highlights leadership action from global businesses, governments and NGOs that are catalyzing the market towards achieving this goal.
Kilroy Realty, Majid Al Futtaim, Integral Group, the City of Vancouver, and the State of California are signatories who have taken early action to actively converting their commitments.
The report further features actions from Green Buildings Councils (GBCs) from across the world facilitating this market transformation such as:
- The release of nine new net zero carbon certification schemes from France, Canada, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Sweden, India, USA, and two frameworks from the Netherlands and the UK.
- Certifying nearly 390 buildings globally as net zero carbon
- Raising awareness through advocacy activities of the urgency and achievability of net zero carbon buildings
- Developing industry capacity through educational programmes and industry events
The latest businesses to sign up to the Commitment include: global studio for sustainable architecture and urbanism, Foster + Partners; specialist consulting, engineering and advisory firm, AESG; GBC Australia member Local Government Super; and design, engineering and manufacturer of intelligent fluid-flow solutions, Armstrong Fluid Technologies
“We are delighted to sign the Commitment to advancing net zero, which is a milestone in our own journey of advocating thought leadership for a sustainable built environment. We hope that in providing a pathway to net zero on all of our projects, we will be able to help stimulate the transition to decarbonizing the global economy in line with the Paris Climate Change agreement goals,” said Saeed Al Abbar, Managing Director, AESG.