A light shone on building lifecycle

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) will use the 10th annual World Green Building Week in September to focus on end-to-end carbon emissions created across the building and construction industry, highlighting the need for the sustainable production, design, build, use, deconstruction and reuse of buildings and their materials.

Today, buildings and construction together account for 36% of global final energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when upstream power generation is included.

Operational emissions from buildings account for 28% overall, while the remaining 11% are attributed to embodied carbon emissions, which refers to carbon that is released during material manufacturing and the construction and demolition process.

The issue of addressing embodied carbon emissions is becoming increasingly important to the building and construction industry as major organisations look to collectively achieve net zero carbon along the entire lifecycle of a building.

A detailed report put together by WorldGBC will outline the pressing issues around embodied carbon in the industry, presenting a vision for a net zero carbon construction future and a call to action to radically transform processes right along the planning and construction supply chain.

The report will help to raise awareness of this vital issue and will highlight examples of leadership and best practice from across the sector. In the report, WorldGBC will call for urgent action, recommending specific steps that business, government and civil society can take to help shape a net zero carbon future for the whole lifecycle of all buildings.

The report will be released during World Green Building Week in September 2019.

The focus for this year’s World Green Building Week campaign dovetails with the issue of air pollution, which was the theme of this year’s World Environment Day in June.

“Green building is one key solution to improve air quality in the built environment,” WorldGBC said. “The energy used in material manufacture, construction and operation of buildings must come from clean, renewable sources of energy and not from burning carbon-emitting fossil fuels, which exacerbate global warming, pollute the air and damage human health.”

Cristina Gamboa, CEO of WorldGBC, said: “Only by having an end-to-end understanding can our green building movement truly help contribute to the decarbonisation of the built environment. We look forward to engaging with our Green Building Councils and their members in lively and exciting ways that can genuinely make a difference to awareness around this pressing issue beyond our own industry.”