Green building rating agencies can become key enablers, encouraging the construction industry to measure, control and reduce its embodied carbon footprint. Our new paper outlines why we must enhance green building ratings to catalyse the sustainable transition.
Today, most embodied carbon comes from the manufacturing of commonly used building materials like cement, concrete and steel.
Green building rating agencies can drive progress towards net zero achievement by increasing the ambition of green certifications. Currently, however, most ratings are focused on addressing operational emissions.
With the share of embodied carbon, in India and globally, expected to increase to more than 50% by 2050 as the share of operational carbon, it's critical that the industry, standards and ratings bodies and manufacturers take action today.
Together, the measures we propose in our paper can drive the construction industry towards net-zero by raising the standard of what constitutes as green, both in terms of buildings as well as materials.
Strengthening green building rating methods will be critical to assessing of what constitutes a green building.
Build Ahead's latest paper, A case for including embodied carbon in green ratings, makes the case for a positive step change in how we rate buildings, and how we incentivise the transformation of the construction sector. This paper covers:
- Information on embodied carbon, and why it matters
- A review of the current green ratings systems
- How developers and builders can take action
- The role of standards and ratings bodies in the industry
- Our recommendations for change
39%
Percentage of global annual emissions from the built environment
11%
Percentage of global annual emissions from embodied carbon within buildings
>50%
Of India’s expected residential and commercial building stock for 2030 has yet to be built