Net Zero Carbon Buildings 60+ Signatories Achieved

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27 September 2019

The World Green Building Council has marked its 10th annual Word Green Building Week with new additions to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, signalling global industry leadership towards decarbonising the built environment to combat the climate crisis.

As the UN Committee on Climate Change met in New York, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) announced 63 signatories have now added their names to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment that was launched in September 2018.

These organisations have pledged to take urgent action to ensure their own portfolios of buildings operate at net zero carbon by 2030.  Additionally, some cities, states and regions have pledged to enact regulations to ensure all new buildings operate at net zero carbon from 2030 and all buildings, including existing, operate at net zero carbon by 2050.

The Commitment is unique in positioning energy efficiency as a central component to achieving decarbonisation across global building portfolios, in addition to generating and procuring renewable energy to meet reduced energy demand. The WorldGBC says this represents the most cost effective, best practice approach to ensuring buildings are fit for purpose, future-proofed against climate impacts and, provide healthy and comfortable environments.

The full list of the Commitment signatories comprises 31 businesses and organisations including developers, real estate investment and property funds, manufacturers and global design firms.  There are six states and regions as well as 26 cities, with Oslo, Heidelberg and Melbourne as the latest to sign up.

New signatories to the Commitment are:

• Bennetts Associates - an architectural practice advocating for net zero buildings to their clients, which they are currently committed to do via whole life carbon assessments, design for performance and post-occupancy assessments.

• Bionova - the developer of ‘One Click LCA’ lifecycle metrics software, has a mission is to make sustainable design and construction easy, making the delivery of sustainable buildings the norm.

• City of Melbourne - Australia’s second largest city and the capital of Victoria.

• Commonwealth Bank of Australia - an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the USA and the UK.

• EcoReal Oy - a real estate services company supporting their customers to reduce carbon emissions through optimising projects to save energy and reduce energy costs across a broad range of building typologies.

• JLL UK - the professional services firm helping more than 4,000 clients achieve their business ambitions. JLL UK is committed to achieving net zero operational carbon emissions in its own workplaces by 2030, to integrating zero carbon into service offerings by 2021 and to educating and influencing to make net zero mainstream.

• Kingspan - Kingspan’s mission is to challenge traditional building methods and materials to accelerate a more sustainable built environment. In 2011, Kingspan made the ambitious commitment to become a Net Zero Energy company by 2020. Now, in 2019, Kingspan is on track to meet this target and has just announced a new 10-year programme to achieve Net Positive Energy and Carbon manufacturing by 2030.

• Monash University - the first educational institution to join the Commitment. As an owner and developer of a portfolio of 170 buildings across four Australian campuses, Monash's net zero Initiative commits to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. This will be achieved through measures including energy efficiency improvements, performance standards for new builds, campus electrification and deployment of renewable energy.

• Multiplex Global - Multiplex have committed to develop a decarbonisation roadmap trajectory for owned and occupied assets. In addition to the measures, Multiplex is undertaking to reduce its impact on carbon emissions by collaborating with peers, supply chain partners and clients to call the industry to action.

Picture: A greenwall - an example of the changes that can be incorporated in to carbon zero buildings.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis | Published 27 September 2019

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