Take climate action with us in New York

during World Green Building Week

Dear GBCs and Partners
Welcome to the April edition of the Global Update newsletter.
Last month, we were delighted to welcome our Board of Directors and Corporate Advisory Board to London for three days of collaboration on our strategy for 2020-2022. It was both encouraging and inspiring to hear that these leaders consider our most valuable proposition to be our credibility, influence and the power of our truly global and diverse network.

As we continue to work towards a collective vision to ensure all buildings are net zero emissions by 2050, we are setting a revised strategy to create the global conditions for success and collaboration. We are focusing on opening up opportunities for our GBCs and challenging industry to understand that innovation is essential to deliver on one of the greatest challenges facing our generation.

I would like to personally invite the CEOs of our Established members to participate in our strategy discussions and join our meetings in September as part of World Green Building Week and Climate Week New York (23-29 September). This will be an opportunity to recognise GBC leadership and their key advisory role to galvanise collective intelligence to input into the future of our global movement. I will write to you personally with the details in the next couple of weeks.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to remind you that we’re looking for new Board Directors, Regional Chair and Vice Chair nominations. The deadline for nominations is 30 April 2019.

Best wishes

Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council

Advancing Net Zero amplifies globally

The Advancing Net Zero (ANZ) project is developing a new call to action report setting out a global framework for voluntary demand, supply and policy actions for reducing embodied carbon emissions. As part of the extensive stakeholder engagement process involved in this work, a series of workshops are being conducted to discuss potential actions the sector can take. GBCs and key stakeholders from the private sector and from the Europe Regional Network have participated in workshops in London on 20 March and on 3 April in Brussels, respectively. The report will be launched in New York during World Green Building Week (23-29 September). In recognition of the relevance of this initiative, and the work of the GBCs in their markets to address embodied emissions, the ANZ project has also welcomed three new GBCs from the Europe Regional Network: Norwegian GBC, GBC Italia and GBC Finland, now totalling 22 GBCs. For more information about the report and the Advancing Net Zero project, contact Victoria Burrows - vburrows@worldgbc.org

See WorldGBC staff at events near you

The WorldGBC team will be speaking at numerous global conferences throughout April and May and we'd love to see you there. On 10 April, Victoria Burrows will be speaking about Advancing Net Zero at Irish GBC's Green Room in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 May, WorldGBC's Chair Lisa Bate will discuss circular economy in the built environment at the 8th Annual Emirates Green Building Congress in Dubai, UAE. Join WorldGBC Europe at EU Green Week in Brussels on 16 May. Meanwhile, the Americas Regional Network will convene on 15 May in San José, Costa Rica during GBCCR's CICS conference before the first Cities Climate Action Project Regional Workshop. The next ERN meeting will take place in Oslo, Norway on 21 May alongside the Urban Future Global Conference (22-24 May) where WorldGBC speakers include CEO Cristina Gamboa and ERN Director James Drinkwater. Finally, Asia Pacific Head Allan Han-Huei Teo will be speaking about zero carbon, resilient cities at the Responsible Business Forum on Climate Innovation in Haikou, China on 23 May.

EmiratesGBC wins prestigious award in UAE

On 2 April, the Emirates Green Building Council was chosen as the winner in the Representative Entity category of the Dubai Quality Appreciation Award at the 25th Business Excellence Awards ceremony in Dubai, UAE. The ceremony is hosted annually by the Dubai Economic Department, and the Awards honour and recognise the sustained high-quality performance, achievements and excellence of various businesses and entities. EmiratesGBC was awarded for the Representative Entity category recognition, which falls under the broader framework of the Dubai Quality Award, for its noteworthy role in engaging, offering benefits and creating value for its members. The recognition highlights the best practices that EmiratesGBC follows in its work practices. Congratulations EmiratesGBC! To find out more, read the news story here.

New partnership to make our cities greener

On 3 April, Urban Green Council and WorldGBC's Americas Regional Network announced a new partnership to join forces to accelerate climate action in cities through innovative regional exchanges in public policies, research and education. The new partnership will focus on the urgent need to lower global carbon emissions through city-level green building initiatives. Both organisations have agreed to work together to scale public policies to improve energy efficiency in buildings; advance net zero carbon buildings through learnings from WorldGBC's Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment; convene during a joint event at Climate Week NYC; and foster collaboration and communication through a series of webinars with Americas Regional stakeholders. For more information, contact Juanita Alvarez - jalvarez@worldgbc.org
 

UKGBC launches Circular economy guidance

Together with its members, UKGBC has produced circular economy guidance for construction clients, which provides comprehensive practical guidance to support construction clients who want to ask for circular principles in their project briefs for non-domestic built assets. The guidance addresses the commercial realities associated with making this happen in practice and provides support and evidence to assist clients in setting clear strategies that ensure budget, project timescales and risks are all minimised and mitigated. As part of its two year Circular Economy Programme UKGBC will be working with industry over the following year to share the guidance and ensure it is implemented to enable greater practical action and start a long term systemic shift of business models towards a more circular built environment. Download the guidance here.

WGBW2018 shortlisted for green award win

We are excited to announce that our World Green Building Week 2018 campaign has been shortlisted for the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2019! The #HomeGreenHome campaign which reached an estimated 155 million people worldwide in September 2018 is a finalist in the Environmental Awareness Campaign of the Year category. Now in its ninth year, the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards celebrate businesses, NGOs, public sector bodies and individuals across 25 different categories and are rigorously judged by a panel of sustainability professionals and green economy leaders. The awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 26 June in London, UK. To see the complete list of finalists, click here. For more information about World Green Building Week 2019, contact Georgie Eldridge - geldridge@worldgbc.org

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