Air Quality in the Built Environment -

join our new campaign

Dear GBCs and Partners
Welcome to the May edition of the Global Update newsletter.
Last month, WorldGBC launched a global Air Quality in the Built Environment campaign to highlight the role of green building in combatting air pollution. We believe that sustainable buildings and cities are a key part of the solution to reducing both the health and environmental impacts of global air pollution.

Working in partnership with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition in conjunction with the BreatheLife2030 campaign, WorldGBC aims to increase awareness, develop understanding and kickstart actions from a global audience across a range of sectors. Our specific goals are:
 

  • reduce ambient outdoor emissions
  • mitigate sources of indoor air pollution
  • radically improve sustainable operation of buildings
  • increase global awareness


The details of the campaign and more information about the link between air quality and the built environment can be found here. We would greatly appreciate your support in amplifying this content. The files are available to download from our website. The campaign is the latest deliverable in WorldGBC's Better Places for People project.


We have also refreshed the identity for Better Places for People and you can now see the new logo across all material related to the project.
Best wishes

Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council

Regional Focus: Asia Pacific Network

WorldGBC's Asia Pacific Regional Network is excited to announce a new partnership with the Ramboll Foundation. Through this partnership, WorldGBC will scale and accelerate private sector commitment and action across Asia Pacific towards a decarbonised buildings sector in line with the IPCC’s 1.5 degree climate target; specifically through tackling embodied carbon in construction. It will do so by leveraging the current global work being done - to understand the state of the sector on embodied carbon and outlining leading efforts and successful strategies to build low carbon buildings - and facilitate the development of an embodied carbon roadmap that's relevant and can drive action in Asia.
Furthermore, last month Godrej & Boyce, a Corporate Activity Partner of WorldGBC's Asia Pacific Regional Network certified the first net zero energy building in India under IndianGBC's Net Zero Energy Rating. This is a fantastic achievement for Godrej & Boyce and a huge step forward on the path to net zero buildings in India. For more information, contact Allan Teo - [email protected]

Closing in on green mortgages in Europe

In April, the EeMAP project, which aims to scale the market for green mortgages in Europe came to a formal end. At a major closing event in Riga, we celebrated the successes of the project, including the launch of the pilot scheme, now boasting 44 banks and financial institutions representing half of EU mortgage debt. National market hubs have now been set up in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy and the UK - with more in the pipeline - to help grow the market locally. Nordea Finland also announced the launch of a new green housing loan that complies with the definition for green mortgages agreed by EeMAP participants. GBC Finland has worked closely with Nordea and other lenders, to support growth of the market as part of the national hub. In his keynote speech at the event, Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission Vice President for the Euro praised the initiative, adding: “we will be learning from your experiences to see how to promote green mortgages at European level.” For more information on EeMAP or our continuing work on sustainable finance, contact Stephen Richardson - [email protected]

UKGBC launches net zero carbon building framework definition

Last week, the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) unveiled a framework for the UK construction and property industry to transition new and existing buildings to become net zero carbon by 2050, in line with the ambitions of the Paris Climate Agreement. The report follows six months of intense industry engagement, involving over 180 experts and stakeholders from across the built environment value chain. The framework, derived from global principles of WorldGBC's Advancing Net Zero programme, provides consistent metrics and principles that can be integrated into tools, policies and practices, and sets out key principles for developers, owners and occupiers to follow and outlines how net zero should be measured and evidenced. Two approaches to net zero carbon are proposed by the framework: net zero carbon in construction and operation. To download the framework definition, click here. For more information, contact [email protected]

Scaling up green cities across the Americas

Since winning a $600,000 USD grant in October 2018 fromP4Gto scale up the Cities Climate Action project, the Americas Regional Network has taken the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA) to more cities and countries in the Americas. The latest programme signatories include Belen in Costa Rica, Guatemala City in Guatemala, the State of Campeche in Mexico, and Cali and Monteria in Colombia. The uptake is largely due to recognition by city officials that GBCs are the ideal collaboration partners to develop public private initiatives, such as the BEA, which transform global expertise into local government implementation of building efficiency policies and programs. On 17 May duringCICS 2019, WorldGBC's Americas Regional Network will hold the first first Cities Climate Action Project Regional Workshop for cities to identify and structure public policies on energy efficiency in buildings at a city scale. For more information, contact Juanita Alvarez - [email protected]

Prepare to launch - WGBW2019

World Green Building Week 2019 – the flagship event in the global green building calendar – is fast approaching! From 23-29 September, Green Building Councils, their member companies, our corporate partners, NGOs and the public around the world will unite to celebrate the power of green buildings. We’re busy working on the visual identity of the campaign, which this year focuses on building and construction emissions and embodied carbon as its theme. This month we are carrying out consultations with GBCs and stakeholders and your valuable feedback and input will help shape the campaign messaging. Look out for the full range of resources which will be available on 5 June - World Environment Day - and further details on a series of webinars explaining how to use them. If you have any questions or ideas related to World Green Building Week and for more information, contact Georgie Eldridge - [email protected]

See us at events near you in May

On 14 May, join Asia Pacific Head Allan Teo in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam for AGC's Green Envelope Conference. See us at EU Green Week in Brussels on 16 May where WorldGBC ERN Director James Drinkwater will chair a session on implementing sustainable construction ambitions with DGNB and ERN Partners Skanska and Ramboll. On 15 May, Head of Better Places for People Catriona Brady will be at AESG's Healthy Cities event in London. Meanwhile, the Americas Regional Network will convene on 15 May in San José, Costa Rica during GBCCR's CICS conference before the first Cities Climate Action Project Workshop. The ERN will meet in Oslo on 21 May alongside the Urban Future Global Conference (22-24 May) where WorldGBC speakers include CEO Cristina Gamboa and James Drinkwater. Finally, Allan Teo will be speaking about zero carbon, resilient cities at the Responsible Business Forum on Climate Innovation in Haikou, China on 23 May.

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