Twenty-five of the world’s leading building industry organizations, including ASHRAE and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), have issued a joint statement to government representatives attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27).
Titled “Building Industry Steps Up to Address Climate Change,” the statement serves as a pledge from the signatories that they will assume a leadership role in decarbonization efforts in the built environment.
In a video presentation (embedded below), 2022-23 ASHRAE President Farooq Mehboob presented a roadmap for addressing climate change, reading directly from the statement.
“The buildings that we live and work in are responsible for approximately 40% of total global direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mehboob. “The built environment is therefore one of the leading drivers of climate change. Simultaneously, making changes to how and what we build is one of our most effective tools for mitigating and adapting to climate change and places a great responsibility on the built environment industry. This is a responsibility we earnestly accept.”
Signatories demonstrated their support of the statement.
“Collaboration across the buildings industry is critical to enable and accelerate progress on climate goals. This shared statement communicates to engineers around the globe that their work matters; and our collective commitment to leadership in decarbonizing the built environment engages them in the global effort to address the devasting impacts of climate change,” said USGBC President & CEO Peter Templeton. “USGBC is pleased to work with ASHRAE and other partner organizations to support the many engineers and building professionals on the front lines, making the case to their clients to push their designs to go further to decarbonize.”
To read the joint statement in its entirety and to see a complete list of signatories, click here.