While building construction and operations are among the largest contributors to climate change, accounting for nearly 40% of energy-related CO2 emissions globally, they also remain the most cost-effective climate mitigation solution available. Every $1 invested in efficiency saves $2 in new electricity generation and distribution costs. As the latest IPCC report reminded us, building decarbonization must be a crucial pillar of global efforts to reduce emissions – and we have no time to lose.

Cities and subnational governments can be critical drivers of building decarbonization. In 2022, six new subnational governments have committed to decarbonize the built environment by joining WRI’s Zero Carbon Building Accelerator (ZCBA), funded by the Global Environment Facility and supported by the UN Environment Programme. Since 2021, the ZCBA has been working in Colombia and Turkey to create national roadmaps and align city action plans for building decarbonization. Now, the ZCBA will help develop local-level action plans in Costa Rica, India and Kenya that outline the steps to reach building decarbonization by 2050 and simultaneously deliver on co-benefits like improved air quality and green jobs. The ZCBA’s action plans will align with existing national and local climate goals and be tailored for the specific context of each subnational government.

The new ZCBA member cities and governments in India, Kenya and Costa Rica will define their own goals, analyze the gaps in their current situation and identify the unique actions needed to curb emissions and improve quality of life for residents through whole lifecycle building decarbonization. Establishing short-, medium- and long-term actions and developing local pilot projects as a part of the ZCBA will support these new governments in accelerating market transformation and the transition to a healthier, greener built environment.

India – Nagpur

Nagpur is the largest city in central India, already home to 2.5 million people and still rapidly growing. Supported by local partners ICLEI South Asia, the city joined the Building Efficiency Accelerator in 2018 and received deep-dive support in 2019 for energy benchmarking and audits to identify potential energy savings in existing public and private buildings, as well as for the development of locally tailored low-carbon building design recommendations and guidelines for municipal affordable housing.

After performing a citywide greenhouse gas emissions inventory, Nagpur found that its buildings sector, comprising of residential, commercial and public buildings, is still a major energy consumer and driver of city’s carbon emissions. Recently committing to the Race to Zero, the city will need to transform its building sector to achieve its climate goals. Nagpur plans to identify the actions it needs to enable deep carbon reduction in its buildings through alignment with national and subnational policies and building codes like ECO-Niwas Samhita (the energy conservation building code for residential buildings) and through the promotion of efficiency and decarbonization at every stage of the building lifecycle.

Kenya – Laikipia County

In 2019, the Kenya Green Building Society (KGBS) led the development of local green building guidelines and the incorporation of these guidelines into Nairobi’s building approval process as part of the Building Efficiency Accelerator. Laikipia County has proven to be a climate leader through commitments like the Under2 Coalition, in which members commit to keep global temperature rise well below 2°C with efforts to reach 1.5°C, and actions like Regenerative Agroforestry; Laikipia County has developed a model farm and school to promote sustainable, climate-resilient production systems that regenerate land through the use of trees and climate-smart agriculture. Laikipia County will now join the ZCBA to build on KGBS’ existing work in the country.

In 2021, Kenya committed to decarbonization and is on course to achieving a full transition to clean energy by 2030. The role of the built environment has already been outlined in the Kenya National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, but counties – who develop and implement the building codes – still need assistance in turning these national ambitions into on-the-ground realities. With support from WRI and KGBS, Laikipia County will work to implement the actions needed to meet these building decarbonization goals.

Costa Rica – Belén, Curridabat, Moravia and Santa Ana

In 2018, as a part of the Building Efficiency Accelerator, Green Building Council Costa Rica led the formation of the Costa Rica City Cluster, a working group for city leaders from Belén, Curridabat, Moravia and Santa Ana to work together to address barriers and implement strategies for improving building efficiency.

Each city has unique challenges and is at a different stage of implementation. Curridabat is revising its city master plan to include a municipal efficiency code. Belén, a city with a strong commercial industrial sector, is updating its bylaws for construction permits. Santa Ana is focusing on incorporating green building criteria and technical environmental requirements into its construction regulations. And Moravia is beginning to implement sustainable building strategies in its main Municipal Government Building. The diverse goals and experiences of this city cluster allow the cities to be a resource to one another as they advance their initiatives and provide examples for other cities looking to do this work no matter their size or scope.

The national government in Costa Rica has several ambitious climate policies in place, such as the National Decarbonization Plan, which the municipalities are not currently equipped to implement. As part of the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator, the Costa Rica city cluster of Belén, Curridabat, Moravia and Santa Ana will align their local action plans with national policies to identify transformative actions and the first steps needed for local implementation.

Through their participation in the ZCBA, these cities and subnational governments across India, Kenya and Costa Rica will work closely with local implementing partners, WRI technical experts and the wider ZCBA network – including Konya and Gaziantep in Turkey and Bogotá and Calí in Colombia – to exchange knowledge and best practices. This collaborative effort will help them drive policy change and support pilot projects that facilitate building decarbonization and a built environment that is just, healthy and sustainable.

The post 6 Cities and Local Governments Accelerating Zero Carbon Buildings appeared first on Building Efficiency Accelerator.

In this one-hour webinar WRI and its partners, Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (CCCS) will share lessons learned about stakeholder engagement in the road mapping process and discuss how aligning local and national actors promotes a holistic approach to building decarbonization. The session will close with Q&A and open discussion for peer-to-peer learning.

The webinar will be available in English and Spanish.

Speakers:

• Sumedha Malaviya, Senior Program Manager, Zero Carbon Building Accelerator, WRI India
• Fairuz Loutfi, Circular Economy and Energy Efficiency Manager, WRI México
• Angélica Ospina, Technical Director, Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sustentable (CCCS)

En Español:

Acelerador de edificaciones neto cero carbono: Participación de las partes interesadas en Colombia

En 2020, como parte del Acelerador de Edificaciones Neto Zero Carbono (ZCBA por sus siglas en inglés), Colombia fue seleccionada para recibir apoyo técnico y financiero para desarrollar una Hoja de Ruta Nacional para la descarbonización de las edificaciones y planes de acción locales para implementarse en las ciudades de Cali y Bogotá. Al inicio del proyecto, un comité directivo multinivel y nueve grupos de trabajo fueron creados para recopilar diversas perspectivas de todos los sectores y tomar parte en la hoja de ruta y en los planes de acción.

En este seminario web de una hora, WRI y sus socios, el Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (CCCS) compartirán las lecciones aprendidas sobre la participación de las partes interesadas en el proceso de elaboración de la hoja de ruta y discutirán cómo la alineación de los actores locales y nacionales promueve un enfoque holístico para la descarbonización de las edificaciones. La sesión concluirá con preguntas y respuestas y una discusión abierta para el aprendizaje entre pares.

El seminario web estará disponible en inglés y español (traducción simultánea).

Panelistas:

• Sumedha Malaviya, Gerente Senior de Programa, Acelerador de Edificaciones Neto Cero Carbono (ZCBA), WRI India
• Fairuz Loutfi, Gerente de Economía Circular y Eficiencia Energética, WRI México
• Angélica Ospina, Directora Técnica, Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (CCCS)

The post Webinar: Zero Carbon Building Accelerator – Stakeholder Engagement in Colombia appeared first on Building Efficiency Accelerator.

With this success and others as a part of the BEA and the country’s clear ambition toward sectoral decarbonization as seen in the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Strategy (E2050), Colombia was selected in 2020 receive technical and financial support to develop a national Zero Carbon Building Roadmap and two local action plans for implementation as a part of WRI’s Zero Carbon Building Accelerator (ZCBA).

The partnership is working to produce a roadmap that will be adopted by the national government and further modify Resolution 549 to implement zero carbon buildings nationally. CCCS is again leading on-the-ground organization with national and local actors across sectors and industries. WRI centers stakeholder engagement in the ZCBA roadmap and action planning approaches to ensure holistic and deep systemic transformation. Implementing actors from every stage of the building lifecycle must be included in the planning and design of long-term solutions to effectively deliver the government’s current commitments and bring real-world change.

Building National Stakeholder Engagement

In April 2021, a national launch event was held to announce the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator project and its goals in Colombia. The event also included a panel discussion to give context to the current state of zero carbon buildings in the country and was followed by an interactive session that gathered preliminary stakeholder input and deepened relationships in the field.

Participating virtually, 199 attendees from government, the private sector, academia and civil society joined the call to hear from national and local government officials, as well as the CEO of the World Green Building Council, as they announced how the ZCBA would interact at the national and local levels in Colombia.

During the panel discussion, private and financial institutions, engineers, designers and government representatives shared their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges in achieving zero carbon buildings in Colombia.

Key themes identified by panelists included:

• Alignment of national and local policies for the implementation of zero carbon buildings.
• The importance of regulations that encourage and support secure futures for entrepreneurs and investors.
• Capitalizing on green development as a solid business investment.
• Building capacity for a sustainable building and construction sector through workforce training programs and public education campaigns.
• Research and technological developments as key drivers to reduce CO2 in the materials manufacturing processes.
• Strategizing to manage informal development.

With this context, an interactive session asked participants questions about the distribution of CO2 emissions throughout the lifecycle of buildings. The lifecycle was broken down into five categories and subcategories:

For each phase of the building lifecycle, participants were asked about:

• How each phase contributed to the reduction and generation of emissions in buildings.
• Whether subcategories should be added or removed from the phase.
• The prioritization of subcategories based on their impact to achieve net zero carbon buildings.
• References to inform the baseline assessment for each phase of the lifecycle, looking specifically at insights into policy, finance, innovation, technology, renewable energy and capacity building.

At the end of the session, attendees were encouraged to continue participating in the road mapping process throughout the ZCBA project by joining stakeholder working groups. Working groups inform and review the baseline assessment, provide insights for the gap analysis, identify transformative actions for the recommendation report and ultimately give feedback on the national roadmap before it is finalized.

Stakeholder Working Groups

To ensure a holistic and inclusive approach, an advisory committee and nine stakeholder working groups were established to guide the road mapping process and address the building lifecycle action areas and enablers outlined in by the GlobalABC’s Roadmap for Buildings and Construction.

A key institutional structure for the ZCBA in Colombia is the advisory committee, the governing body of the project which aims to align the vision of the accelerator at the national and local levels. The advisory committee is comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Housing, National Planning Department, City Planning Department of Bogotá, City Planning Department of Cali, CAMACOL – Colombian Construction Chamber and CCCS.

Building on the national launch event, nine working groups were devised to garner feedback on the building lifecycle, promote enabling actions and adapt national recommendations to the local context. Stakeholders self-selected the working group they were most interested in advising on and where they felt their expertise would be most impactful.

Each of the nine working groups meets monthly to support the successive phase of the project. The workshops begin with presentations from CCCS to give updates and context to the project, followed by engagement activities where participants give feedback, share insights and advise on inputs or alternative ideas. Thus far, working groups have informed the current state of construction analysis, baseline assessment and gap analysis.

CCCS has centered the road mapping process on the stakeholder working groups to bring insights and feedback into their methodology that may have been unseen without diverse perspectives from across sectors. Bringing deep systematic change to the building and construction sector requires that the actors who will be implementing the roadmap be incorporated into the planning and design in order to strategize whole lifecycle actions and solutions that will be realistic, viable and successful. Further updates on Colombia’s progress will be shared as the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator project continues over the next year.

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