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Four of the world’s most influential green building organizations have pledged to develop an international language for measuring carbon emissions from buildings.
Meeting in London earlier this month, the groups agreed to form a task force that will attempt to standardize the measurement and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions from new homes and commercial properties across several green building rating systems.
The groups that are involved are the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the administrator of the LEED certification system; the BRE Trust, which owns the BREEAM assessment tool used in much of Europe; Green Building Council Australia, which runs that country’s Green Star rating system; and the UK Green Building Council.
Buildings account for nearly half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, said Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council.
“Rating tools like BREEAM, LEED and Green Star have a proven track record in driving significant improvements in performance, and I’m delighted they are now coming together to help create an international language that will enable us to talk with one voice about the vital role green buildings can play in creating a low-carbon future,” he said.
No date has been set for the first meeting, although the task force could have recommendations by December, when world leaders will convene at the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen to discuss a global environmental accord to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
“We’re looking toward Copenhagen and we’re also looking toward climate legislation in the United States,” said Michelle Moore, senior vice president of policy & public affairs for USGBC. “We all have a sense of urgency.”
Creating standard measurements for emissions is difficult because rating systems are vastly different from one country to another. For instance, the green building strategies included in one system may not exist in another, or similar strategies may measure carbon reductions differently.
Aligning those measurements would allow multinational real estate owners, such as corporations, institutional investors and governments, to measure and report carbon emissions with global consistency, Moore said.
“We think this is going to be tremendous for owners that are using rating systems in different places. Making an apples-to-apples case will help the industry on a global scale.”
