Although green building certification has gained ground over the past three decades, the majority of existing buildings, up to 75% of the building stock today in the developed world, do not have it and are less energy efficient than their higher performing counterparts, he says. an alliance of five sustainable building rating groups.
Their new report cites a lack of awareness and financial resources among the barriers that have limited the widespread adoption of sustainable building practices.
In the recently released report aimed at the climate finance community, state regulators and real estate developers, the groups said that most of the buildings in the developed world that will be standing in 2050 have already been built and that their energy performance with ·lectually it is far below what is needed. to achieve global decarbonisation goals.
According to the International Energy Agency, emissions from buildings must fall by 9% per year by 2030 to meet net zero targets by 2050.
The groups note that these reductions will not occur by directing capital to purely “green” assets such as high-performance Class A buildings. “Not all buildings will achieve green building certification,” the groups concluded. “However, all buildings can implement green building practices to … be more resilient.”
The groups said the report continues efforts launched this summer after the London Climate Week conference to highlight the need to expand green building activity within “non-engaged” communities.
“Sustainable finance is moving heavily toward Class A properties in real estate,” says Paul Mathew, senior fellow at the US Green Building Council and a member of the alliance. “Obviously, that’s not going to get us to our decarbonization goal. So we really need to make that push.” It also includes Alliance AQE in France, BRE Group in the UK, Green Building Council Australia and Singapore Green Building Council.
Among its recommendations are to standardize the terms associated with ecological products, tools and systems; and are extended as definitions that consider performance over the entire useful life of a building.
Decarbonisation is a “multi-year, sometimes multi-decade journey that requires thoughtful technical and financial planning around building lifecycle milestones,” the alliance said.
Although green building practices have not yet achieved market penetration among Class B and Class C building owners, certification programs such as LEED have advanced and resulted in more aggressive building codes and related policies with the performance of the building, said Alex Dews, executive. director of the Institute for Market Transformation.
“You will always need a segment of the market that leads and shows what is possible for everyone else. We’ve changed half the market” to a much higher level of performance, he added.