Photo showing aerial view of roof gardens. By Chuttersnap via Unsplash

Policy challenge

The Hub provides resources to support policymakers across the world to transform the construction industry in line with the Paris Agreement, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda, and the Buildings Breakthrough target.

The built environment sector has the potential to achieve rapid decarbonization by supporting various stakeholders across the entire life cycle of materials, including international supply chains. To optimize building material decarbonization, specific policies should be tailored to the context. Six key strategies are essential for decarbonization: setting higher building code standards, legislating circularity throughout the life cycle, promoting the use of low-carbon, bio-based materials, improving access to data and life-cycle analysis, addressing gender imbalances in the built environment, and demonstrating public sector leadership in finance and procurement.

More specifically, as laid out in the UNFCCC-MPGCA Human Settlements Climate Action Pathway, which aims to guide and drive implementation of the Paris Agreement, two goals for decarbonisation of buildings are in place that the Hub aims to support:

Near-term

By 2030, the built environment should halve its emissions, whereby 100 per cent of new buildings must be net-zero carbon in operation, with widespread energy efficiency retrofit of existing assets well underway, and embodied carbon must be reduced by at least 40 per cent, with leading projects achieving at least 50 per cent reductions in embodied carbon.

Long-term

By 2050 at the latest, all new and existing assets must be net zero across the whole lifecycle, including operational and embodied emissions.

Various policies have been proposed and implemented in some countries to speed this transition towards the above targets. Policies may target a specific phase of the building life cycle, but strategies should consider a range of interventions that address the full life cycle. Early adopters of policies can provide valuable experiences for wider roll-out in other countries. Resources in the Hub provide examples, learnings and ideas of policies in the following areas:

  • Implementing building codes and embodied carbon limits for materials
  • Incentivising more sustainable approaches to construction, such as material re-use, circular design and off-site manufacture
  • Mandating different construction activity where this is possible - e.g. renovation over new construction, deconstruction over demolition
  • Improving and incentivising green certifications for buildings and materials

Resources are included  to address a range of key policy challenges related to building materials. Alongside embodied and operational carbon and circularity, resources are included that can also tackle issues related to chemicals and health, climate adaptation, poverty alleviation through housing, land-use and biodiversity, and responsible material sourcing. 

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Sustainable Tropical Building Design - Guidelines for Commercial Buildings
2023-08-22
Sustainable Tropical Building Design - Guidelines for Commercial Buildings

This document has been prepared by Cairns Regional Council to assist in meeting the requirements of the Sustainable Building Design Policy when designing, constructing and renovating Council buildings. These guidelines are also intended as a general reference guide for sustainable design and construction of commercial buildings in the tropics.

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Edge
2023-08-22
EDGE Buildings

EDGE (“Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies”) is a free software, a green building standard, and an international green building certification system, enabling users to design and certify resource-efficient and zero carbon buildings. 

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OpenLCA
2023-08-21
OpenLCA

OpenLCA is an open source and free software for Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment, with the following features:

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Declare
2023-08-21
Declare

Manufacturers voluntarily disclose product information on easy-to-read Declare labels. These labels report all product ingredients and use a simple color code system to flag chemicals of concern. Further information is provided on the product’s final assembly locations, life expectancy, end-of-life options, and overall compliance with relevant requirements of the Living Building Challenge (LBC).

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Global LCA Data Access network (GLAD)
2023-08-21
Global LCA Data Access network (GLAD)

The Global LCA Data Access network (GLAD) is the largest directory of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) datasets, from independent LCA database providers, from around the world.

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Build Carbon Neutral Calculator
2023-08-21
Build Carbon Neutral Calculator

Constructing new buildings and sites with the least possible environmental impact involves three important steps: reduce, renew and offset. Offsetting means calculating the project's carbon footprint so it can be balanced by funding resources or activities like renewable energy and land protection — resources that benefit and protect the planet.

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Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings
2023-08-21
Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings

 

In North America, the Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings is the only free software tool that is designed to evaluate whole buildings and assemblies based on internationally recognized life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology.

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Cradle to Cradle Certified
2023-08-21
Cradle to Cradle Certified

Cradle to Cradle Certified® is the leading multi-attribute standard used globally across industries by designers, brands and manufacturers for designing and making products that enable a healthy, equitable and sustainable future. For more than a decade, Cradle to Cradle Certified has been helping companies to innovate and optimize materials and products according to the world’s most advanced science-based measures.

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EnergyPlus
2023-08-09
EnergyPlus

EnergyPlus™ is a whole building energy simulation program that engineers, architects, and researchers use to model both energy consumption—for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and plug and process loads—and water use in buildings.

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Autodesk Insight
2023-08-09
Autodesk Insight

Insight is a tool aimed at architects and engineers to support design of more energy-efficient buildings, using advanced simulation engines, and integration with Revit.

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