Net zero carbon buildings commitment launched at Global Climate Action Summit

Today, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) officially launched the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco and announced 38 founding signatories.
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The signatories, made up of 12 businesses, 22 cities and 4 states and regions, gathered at a dedicated summit session today to signal the start of a leadership movement towards a decarbonised built environment. Among the signatories are UKGBC members Berkeley Group, Cundall and Elementa (under the global Integral Group) as well as the Mayor of London.

The commitment requires businesses to set ambitious targets to eliminate operational carbon emissions from their building portfolios by 2030. Signatories are required to evaluate their current energy use and associated emissions across their portfolios; identify opportunities to reduce energy wastage and improve energy efficiency; power their buildings from renewable energy sources; and report on progress against decarbonisation targets.

Last month, C40 announced 19 cities from their network would be joining the Commitment across 9 countries. Leaders of these cities have committed to enact regulations that will require all new buildings within their jurisdiction to operate at net zero carbon from 2030; and all existing buildings to operate at net zero carbon by 2050.

The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment has been developed in partnership with a wide stakeholder group including Green Buildings Councils, The Climate Group and C40. The Commitment forms part of EP100, a global corporate leadership initiative for energy-smart companies, delivered by The Climate Group in partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy. Businesses signing the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment become EP100 members.

This Commitment is part of the WorldGBC global campaign Advancing Net Zero, launched in 2016. Under the campaign, seven GBCs have launched net zero carbon buildings certification schemes, with a further six due to be released by 2019.

UKGBC will be launching a major new Advancing Net Zero programme next month to help drive the transition to a net zero carbon built environment in the UK.

Make sure to follow the UK Green Building Council on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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