Sustaira Summarizes WBCSD’s New Report: Net Zero Buildings - Halving construction emissions today.
This week, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released their new report "Net Zero Buildings - Halving construction emissions today." This report highlights that we need to cut emissions in half in the built environment by 2030, and then outlines practical steps that could be taken to do so. Through the report and executive summary, we’ve put together our own summary of what you need to know.
Key Take Aways:
Data is key and will drive informed calculation, analysis, and consistent reporting as an enabler of the highest impact.
Ultimately, Sustainability and ESG is data driven. The report focuses on embodied carbon because this seems to be the most challenging thing to mitigate on a global scale, and is the biggest concern over the next decade. To do this, will require a shift in focus on all aspects of a building from the earliest point possible, by all players in the value chain. Essentially, decisions around where and what to build, or which items will be re-purposed could be immensely impactful. This leads into the second key take away of this report.
Companies must quickly gain the confidence to treat carbon like money, setting clear budgetary targets
When digging into all of the aspects of a building the report outlines the similarly in approach between this and how projects are assessed commercially, ultimately drawing the parallel that if we treated carbon similar to how we treated costs, the carbon impacts could be immensely decreased. WBCSD ultimately state that we need to look at every project in extreme detail to see all the decisions behind that project through various lenses of both of whole building as well as the individual building layers in order to achieve the most carbon reductions. Replace carbon with cost, and its essentially the same approach.
Early well-informed thinking is essential to gain the highest reduction potential
While it would be ideal to look at carbon at every single phase or decision in the process, that is very unlikely to be a reasonable ask at this point. What the report continues to say is that companies must be “scientific in their scrutiny of the numbers, and firms must collect, share, and analyze data rigorously. Industry players must review decisions systemically across multiple inter related parameters and evaluate the notion of carbon payback in reaching the right balanced solution across operational and embodied carbon.” Which lead directly to the next key takeaway.
A systemic approach is required as there is no single solution
It is clear that there is no “silver bullet” that is going to halve carbon emissions for every single company. This report is quick to highlight that it’s not intended to be definitive, but instead hopes to raise awareness around the positive impacts we could have, and outline what types of changes would need to be made to do so. The journey to net-zero isn’t a one-size fits all, but it is a team sport. Bringing us to the second to last highlight of this report.
Collaborative engagement of the entire value chain is the only way we will gain the required reductions
In order to make system-wide change, engagement of the entire value chain is essential. With construction especially, we see so many key players part of the creation of even one building. Referencing figure 4 from the report “key overarching considerations - whole-building decisions” we can see just how many different areas there are to consider, now keep in mind many of these likely have different stakeholders. If each of these players isn’t on board, then finding the solution with the most reduction possibility simply won’t happen.
Urgent and decisive action is essential as for the build environment 2030 is today.
The final key topic is that the need to reduce carbon emissions is extremely urgent. 2030 may feel far away, but action must happen today to reach this goal of halved emissions by 2023. “The urgency and need to prioritize carbon should be a given. It is necessary to consider carbon as part of the new economics of all projects, an equal to money. Carbon accounting must be a transparent metric shaping all future projects. Given the urgency, business must fully support this prioritization and appropriate levels of supportive legislation must drive it.”
If you’re interested in reading about this in more detail, you can read and download the full report from this link: https://www.wbcsd.org/Pathways/Built-Environment/Resources/Net-zero-buildings-Halving-construction-emissions-today
