We are proud to announce ADP Consulting as one of the latest signatories to the World Green Building Council‘s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.

At COP26 Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) announced 44 businesses stepping up their ambition as signatories to the updated Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment), taking sector-leading action on whole life carbon emissions.

WorldGBC Media Release: LONDON – 10am GMT, 11 November 2021

At COP26 Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) announces 44 businesses stepping up their ambition as signatories to the updated Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, taking sector-leading action on whole life carbon emissions.

Today, WorldGBC announces 44 businesses who have signed up to the market-leading whole life carbon requirements of the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (the Commitment), pledging to take increased action to decarbonise the built environment across their portfolios and business activities, representing annual turnover of $85 billion. 

These signatories will by 2030:

• Reduce all operational emissions of new and existing built assets
• Achieve maximum reductions in embodied carbon for new developments and major renovations over which they have direct control
• Compensate for any residual operational and upfront embodied emissions that cannot be mitigated
• Advocate for wider emission reductions via their business activities and report on their impact, to enable and accelerate the sector wide transition to net zero

The built environment as a critical climate solution

The global buildings and construction sector is responsible for 37% of global carbon emissions, with 10% of this being embodied carbon resulting from materials and construction processes.

To keep a global temperature rise of no more than 1.5°C within reach, as set out in the Paris Agreement, the #BuildingToCOP26 Coalition has called for emissions from buildings globally to be halved by 2030, and to reach net zero life-cycle emissions for all buildings by no later than 2050.

The Commitment is recognised as a frontrunner initiative and signatories as frontrunners in the Race to Zero. Commitment signatories are going further and faster to tackle operational and embodied emissions from their real estate assets, stimulating the innovative approaches, solutions and business models necessary for the entire sector to reach 2050 goals.

The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment

The Commitment now has a total of 156 signatories, with 122 businesses and organisations; 28 cities; and 6 states and regions. The businesses and organisations signed up to the Commitment account for approximately 6.5 million (tCO2e) of portfolio emissions annually and more than $300 billion annual turnover, and are already taking significant steps to decarbonise their portfolio operations.

You can see the full list of Commitment signatories and learn more about their individual Commitments by viewing their Commitment Profiles here.

The actions of Commitment signatories are complementary to #BuildingLife, a European regional project that is supporting and accelerating the ambitions of the EU Green Deal in the building sector. The project will lead to the creation of an EU whole life decarbonisation roadmap as well as ten national roadmaps produced by Green Building Councils, galvanising climate action in the built environment.

The Commitment acts as one of the pathways to the EP100 initiative by the Climate Group.

Halving emissions by 2030 to achieve a 1.5oC Paris Agreement aligned future

With COP26 and the #BuildingToCOP26 Coalition spotlighting the built environment as a critical climate solution through the UN’s Race to Zero campaign and the Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day, this sector initiative is crucial in the wider advocacy efforts, calling on bolder and more ambitious building regulation to bring these solutions to scale. 

The UN backed Race to Zero campaign is mobilising the shift towards a net zero carbon economy to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. Recognising the crucial role of the built environment in achieving this goal, our industry must ensure that by 2030 all new buildings, infrastructure and renovations will have at least 40% less embodied carbon with significant upfront carbon reduction, and all new buildings must be net zero operational carbon. The 2030 goal is an important milestone leading to 2050, where all new and existing buildings must be totally decarbonised. This requires an unprecedented shift in the way buildings are designed, built, renovated and re-used, in order to stay within remaining carbon budgets for a below 1.5oC Paris Agreement aligned future.  

Aligned with the Race to Zero emissions breakthroughs, the Commitment enables signatories to take action further faster, towards their 2030 decarbonisation goals. 

Find out more at https://buildingtocop.org/