Construction in the era of climate change

Red card for buildings with a large carbon footprint

According to recent studies, construction and use of buildings is responsible for almost 40% of global CO₂ emissions. Accordingly, the construction and real estate industries have a crucial role to play in combating climate change. Leading organisations and environmental policymakers are already engaging with the issue.

In some countries, buildings emit more harmful greenhouse gases than industry or traffic. This fact presents new challenges for the construction and property sectors and the first successes are already evident. In December 2009, leading organisations dedicated to sustainable building agreed a standard way of measuring CO₂ emissions from buildings. The Common Carbon Metric can be used to show the hugely positive effect that sustainable buildings have on the environment, as well as providing insights into the economic potential of reducing CO₂ emissions within construction and facilitating international comparison. In future, this method will be applied across all established rating tools – such as DGNB, BREEAM, LEED and Green Star – to measure CO₂ emissions.

The property sector is taking action
The marketplace is also forcing providers to adapt. Due to continually rising energy prices, the cost of operating properties is starting to seem like a second rent. In future, tenants and buyers will expect buildings to incorporate sustainability features for financial reasons alone in order to reduce service charges. Thanks to new "energy passports" in Germany, the relevant information is already available.

Cutting CO₂ emissions is clearly imperative. The real estate sector is therefore experiencing a paradigm shift, with the market for offices and non-residential property focusing on incorporating energy-saving features into buildings. These features keep total operating costs low while at the same time having a positive impact on environmental performance.