With approximately 70% of the UK’s non-residential building stock constructed before the year 2000, if energy and carbon targets are to be achieved, and the UK’s 2050 net zero targets realised, significant energy efficiency and embodied carbon reductions are needed. As a result, much of the sector will have to undergo some form of retrofit by 2050.

A pioneering passive house retrofit in Sri Lanka creates an economic catalyst and model for sustainable development.

The Star Innovation Center is a product development facility located outside of Colombo in Katunayake, Sri Lanka. Planned as a global model for the entire garment industry, the project sets a new high bar for sustainability, energy efficiency and worker comfort.

Since 2002, the United States Federal Government has outlined its intent to advance sustainable building principles and practices throughout its portfolio established through a number of statutory and executive policies that every Federal agency has integrated and utilized. 

The risks of not curbing global warming are clear. The good news is that the built environment can play a massive role in drawing down emissions. But decarbonizing the built environment needs to advance now: New buildings and renovations of every type need to be built and operated to zero carbon emission standards. This is a collective endeavor. It will take every building in every community. The entire built environment sector, like the entire world of nations, is in this together.  

The urgency around climate change is pressing us to rethink our approach to delivering and using energy in buildings and how this relates to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  This guide provides key information about building decarbonization, aimed at the non-technical audience. 

There is little record or literature concerning bioclimatic building in warm climate zones. One of the main goals of ABC21 project is to cover this information gap – collecting data about operating buildings that are good examples of sustainable solutions and should be replicated. An analysis of the local climate and a description of the main bioclimatic features is presented for each building, with examples shown from Italy, Portugal, Senegal, France, Morocco, Kenya, Sudan and La Reunion.

With the ÖKOBAUDAT platform, the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) Germany provides all stakeholders with a standardized database for the life cycle assessment of buildings. At the heart of the platform is the online database with life cycle assessment data on building materials, construction, transport, energy and disposal processes. With the help of life cycle assessment tools, such as the eLCA provided by the BBSR, the entire life cycle of a building can be compiled with the ÖKOBAUDAT database.

The International EPD System is the world’s first and longest operational Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) programme, originally founded in 1998 as the Swedish EPD System by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and industry.

The built environment is responsible for almost 40% of the global energy and process-related CO₂ emissions. To meet the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5°C, we need to reach net-zero emissions across all activities in the building and construction system. The goal is for all new buildings to operate at net-zero emissions by 2030 at the latest, and for all buildings to operate at net zero by 2050.

This report looks in detail at the results of six whole life cycle assessment (WLCA) case studies to illustrate some of the challenges, barriers and opportunities relating to the building industry’s carbon footprint. It aims to provide an insight into the industry’s current performance and compare it to possible net-zero trajectories.

Analyzing the whole life carbon emissions of six building projects using the WBCSD Building System Carbon Framework, the report shows that: