World Green Building Week is an annual campaign that motivates and empowers us all to deliver greener buildings by challenging us to explore how we can create a sustainable, healthy and climate resilience built environment for all.
The theme of this year’s campaign is #BuildingLife and runs from 23 – 29 September 2019.
Did you know that, according to the World Green Building Council (WGBC), buildings and construction are responsible for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions? 28% of these emissions come from the operational phase – after the build has been complete– to fulfill tasks like heating, cooling or powering the building. While 11% comes from carbon released during the process of manufacturing materials, followed by the construction phase. These emissions are otherwise known as embodied carbon emissions.
To date, the building and construction industry has mainly focused on how buildings perform in-use and where resources can be saved during the operational phase. However, it is needed to also start focusing on the embodied emissions from the entire building lifecycle, in order to keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees and fully decarbonise by 2050.
That’s why 2019’s World Green Building Week theme was selected as #BuildingLife, encouraging new ways of thinking and practices working towards reducing carbon emissions by raising awareness of the carbon emissions from all stages of a building’s life cycle.
World Green Building Council (World GBC) is calling on all of the building and construction industry supply chain to decarbonise. And you can join by signing up below to show your support and to see your activity on the Global Activity Map!
#BuildingLife #WGBW2019