The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has a launched its Circularity Accelerator programme which looks to promote the circular economy and efficiency in the construction sector.
Green building. Credit: Melinda Nagy / Shutterstock
Credit: Melinda Nagy / Shutterstock
In a press release, the WorldGBC said the Circularity Accelerator is a global project designed to "accelerate the adoption of circular economy and resource efficiency principles in the building and construction sector". The network, which consists of over 70 green construction councils and 36,000 individual member companies, has agreed on two key goals.
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The first is to have "sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources within the built environment, zero waste to landfill targets and [be] working towards a built environment with net-zero whole life resource depletion" by 2030.
The second is to achieve "net-zero whole life resource depletion" and to make progress towards "the restoration of resources and natural systems within a thriving circular economy" by 2050.
The United Nations recently reported that in the next five years, the world has a 50% chance of exceeding the 1.5°C target of global warming laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement. Between the UN Climate Summit of COP21 in Paris and COP26 in Glasgow, the global economy consumed 70% more raw materials than the planet can replenish.
According to WorldGBC, the built environment currently accounts for 37% of global energy-related carbon emissions, and the construction sector is responsible for 40% of global resource demand.
A 2021 report by the Global Alliance of Buildings and Construction (GABC), and the International Energy Agency (IEA), found that by 2050, two-thirds of the global population will live in cities, consuming 75% of the world’s natural resources, producing 50% of global waste and over 60% of greenhouse gas emissions.
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According to the January 2022 Circular Gap Report, the construction sector uses more than one-third of worldwide materials but less than 9% of those materials consumed are circular.
"The impact of this resource use — associated GHG emissions and pollution and plunging biodiversity — accelerates climate change and the decline of life-sustaining ecosystem services such as the maintenance of clean water and productive soils," said the WorldGBC in a statement.
The Circular Accelerator is supported by three global partners - US-based sustainability consultancy Brightworks, British architectural, engineering and design practice Foster + Partners and Danish-headquartered consultancy Ramboll, with global engineering and sustainability consulting firm WSP as technical report partners.
The Circularity Accelerator aims to address the three key impacts of areas of the built environment — climate action, health & wellbeing and resources and circularity.
Credit: WorldGBC
Credit: WorldGBC
Dr Anna Braune, Director of Research and Development at the German Sustainable Building Council, said: "Circularity in the built environment is THE strategy to secure resources and materials for future generations. Our current economies can only transform into circular economies with new local, regional and global forms of collaboration and trust."
Two accelerator projects are scheduled for 2022, which intend to raise awareness and educate the sector on the benefits of a more efficient built environment.
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The first of these projects is a 'state of the market' report, which identifies key opportunities and challenges for circular construction and build environments. The second is a global awareness campaign to improve the adoption of circularity and resource-efficient principles including training, events, campaign tool kits and publications for green building councils.
David Symons, UK Director of Sustainability at WSP, said: "Flexible, adaptable, long-life buildings suit occupiers, give increased yields for owners and are better for the environment. WSP is delighted to support this WorldGBC programme and look forward to showing how circular principles in buildings is a practical design approach, not some abstract green philosophy."
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