Four additional Green Building Councils (GBCs) have officially joined World Green Building Council’s (WorldGBC’s) Advancing Net Zero programme, bringing the total number of participating councils to 34.
Based on the Advancing Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Vision and best practice principles, Korea Green Building Council (KGBC), Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS), Turkish Green Building Council (ÇEDBiK) and Hungary Green Building Council (HuGBC) have identified activities within their work streams to advance the uptake of net zero buildings within their local market and beyond.
Founded in 2000, Korea Green Building Council (KGBC) aims to be a source of information on green, sustainable buildings for the building and construction industry. KGBC collects and analyses trends and information from green buildings around the world and shares the findings with its members, academia, and related government agencies. The KGBC’s Forum is another way that the GBC shares information, advocates for better buildings and educates the building sector about sustainable building principles. KGBC has forged close ties with U.S. Green Building Council, BRE and Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research.
Turkish Green Building Council (ÇEDBiK) was founded in 2007 and has over 100 members. ÇEDBiK believes a healthier living environment can be achieved through buildings and settlements using a holistic approach and ecological sensitivity. ÇEDBiK is also a member of WorldGBC programmes BUILD UPON2 and Better Places For People – two work streams that aim to transform the building sector and the supply of sustainable buildings.
Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) has over 100 members, 25 certified buildings, 250 Accredited Professionals and has planted over 1600 trees. KGBS is involved with various projects to improve not only the buildings in Kenyan communities but the health and wellbeing of the people who will occupy the spaces.
Since 2009, Hungary Green Building Council (HuGBC) has been a comprehensive professional platform and community with almost 130 members (corporate, private and NGOs) embracing several areas of the built environment sector – real estate development, design, construction, building material production, consulting, operation, etc. HuGBC provides professional advocacy, education and knowledge sharing on current and future shaping innovations, best practices to realise a sustainable built environment in Hungary.
Hungary Green Building Council has hosted various events and conferences around the subject area of Advancing Net Zero to educate and advocate for sustainable practices. Now as an official member, HuGBC will focus on encouraging the uptake of net zero buildings, as well as green finance and adopting a more circular approach. The GBC understands that this cannot be achieved alone and their planning and development includes engaging government and corporates. To accelerate collaboration and action on net zero buildings, HuGBC will start a working group in November to help understand the current market position and what is achievable.
These Green Building Councils join 30 others in working towards total sector decarbonisation by 2050, and we are thrilled to see growing engagement in the market towards our net zero goals.
Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council
“Deep and meaningful collaboration is the key to achieving our ambitious goals as a movement. I am pleased that four additional Green Building Councils from different regions have joined the Advancing Net Zero programme. We have a lot of work to do and joint efforts between the GBC network and their membership is vital.
By working with GBCs from around the world, we are able to make a global impact through local action. We will continue to build momentum and strengthen these collaborative efforts to accelerate healthy, sustainable, net zero and resilient built environments for everyone, everywhere.”
Victoria Burrows, Director, Advancing Net Zero, World Green Building Council:
“We are delighted to welcome four Green Building Councils to the Advancing Net Zero programme. WorldGBC looks forward to supporting their efforts to accelerate the uptake of net zero buildings within their local market.
These GBCs are committed to developing mechanisms and industry capacity to deliver net zero buildings in their market, as part of the programme’s goal to achieve total sector decarbonisation by 2050.
We aim to support the work they are doing to establish the building and construction sector as critical action areas to achieve local carbon emission reduction targets.”
Sunwoo Lee, General Director, Korea GBC
“Korea has had a zero energy building certification system since 2017, and a policy roadmap has been prepared and applied successively with the aim of making all new buildings zero energy by 2050. Through activities in the ANZ programme, KGBC would like to introduce the Korean ZEB certification system and policies to GBCs and get a lot of information about the trends of the other countries.”
Emre Ilicali, Vice Chair, Turkey GBC
“As Türkiye Green Building Council (Cedbik), we are pleased to be a part of the Advancing Net Zero (ANZ) programme. We sincerely believe that awareness and demand for net zero buildings shall increase all over the world , only with united collaboration of International GBCs. We are also aiming to improve our 2030 & 2050 decarbonization targets and expecting valuable insight from ANZ programme contributors. Being an active GBC taking part in development of green building codes in a country with a tremendous Real Estate and Construction sector, we could offer important experience and know-how on developing methodologies for reaching net zero targets.”
Zsombor Barta, President, Hungary GBC
“We are fully engaged to educate and advise our members and other important stakeholders to achieve net zero buildings in Hungary, this is one of our three focus areas in 2023. We dedicate a working group to the ANZ project, and we try to attract as many signatories of the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment as we can. The current energy crisis in Europe shows us that the sustainable goals we have been working towards for more than 10 years are the only ways to keep our built environment resilient to the climate change and also to the economic recessions and keep our future liveable.”
Nasra Nanda, CEO, Kenya GBS
“As KGBS, we appreciate that so much depends on how we shape and build our towns and cities.This is because fundamentally, we realize that how we shape our cities is greatly influenced by how environmentally, and socially intentional we are about preserving and protecting our environment and the communities who dwell in them. By joining ANZ, KGBS is committing to take a proactive approach in protecting the health and wellbeing of our communities, assisting in climate action, and incorporating ESG to ensure we drive sustainability holistically.”
MEDIA CONTACT
Kirsten Barnes, Marketing and Communications Officer, World Green Building Council
