Decarbonizing the buildings sector is essential to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions. In Colombia, buildings account for 7% of national emissions – smaller than in many countries in part because of the country’s large agriculture, forestry and land use emissions – but it’s taken a big step toward decarbonizing the sector with a new roadmap that bridges national targets with local action.

Colombia’s National Roadmap for Net Zero Carbon Buildings, launched in June 2022 by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, aims to achieve net zero in all new buildings by 2030 and all buildings by 2050. Developed in partnership with WRI’s Zero Carbon Building Accelerator, the roadmap provides a framework for how the country can decarbonize the built environment by setting out clear goals, defining actions and identifying the actors responsible for implementation. To achieve sectoral transformation, short-, medium- and long-term actions have been identified across the value chain of the buildings and construction sector – including urban planning, materials, transportation and distribution, design, labeling, certification, water and energy use, and waste management.

Plotting the Course

The roadmap assesses the current status of the buildings sector and evaluates potential social and environmental impacts of net zero buildings nationally. To reach the ambitious goal of decarbonizing the built environment, the roadmap breaks down 67 goals and 175 transformative actions across six areas: Corporate Practices, Materials, Urban Planning, New Buildings, Existing Buildings and Informal Settlements.

Colombia is distinct in that it includes the informal construction sector alongside the formal in its net zero planning. Nationally, unlicensed buildings account for 19-29% of the building stock and as high as 55-70% in some cities. This unlicensed or informal sector presents a significant challenge to decarbonizing the built environment. “Formalizing” it could reduce construction and demolition waste, improve building materials, and improve the quality of life and health of low-income families. But doing so affordably and justly, without displacing residents, has been difficult for many cities.

The roadmap includes recommendations for ensuring that improving existing homes and buildings takes a participatory, inclusive approach with communities. It also highlights the importance of financial education and programs for communities to make access to formal housing more viable – for example, alternative leasing and mortgage schemes for those without traditional access to financing.

The country has developed regulations and incentives for energy efficiency, clean energy and grid decarbonization. However, there are still regulatory short-falls and barriers, and access to highly efficient building technologies is still lacking. The roadmap sets out to address these challenges by linking specific political, financial, technological and capacity building transformative actions in each of the six action areas to short-, medium- and long-term goals and identifying actors responsible for implementation. The ultimate aim is to achieve the mainstreaming of zero carbon buildings nationally.

The roadmap also includes chapters on the role of financing and how social and gender equity are integrated into transformative actions – for example, utilizing gender-inclusive participatory approaches in urban planning, and diminishing national energy poverty rates with clean energy connectivity for buildings.

Actions are connected to project enablers (policy, technology, capacity development and finance) and linked to the key actors across the value chain and building lifecycle for implementation of those actions.

The country’s biggest barrier may be existing buildings, including the informal sector. Currently there are no regulations or incentives promoting energy efficiency in existing buildings and retrofits. Transformative actions in the roadmap identify regulatory instruments and incentives to build capacity and provide the necessary technology for implementing retrofits for net zero buildings. This includes electrification of space heating and cooling, energy efficient appliances, and onsite clean energy generation.

Multi-Level Action

Colombia’s net zero buildings roadmap marks the culmination of a year’s worth of work by national and local government, the private sector and civil society as a part of WRI’s Zero Carbon Building Accelerator. Multi-level action like this is key to delivering on Colombia’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term climate vision in all sectors, but especially buildings, where actions cross between housing, energy,  national and city planning, for example.

Nine working groups with nearly 400 stakeholders from different sectors across the value chain have participated in the development of the roadmap. Input from these groups informed the baseline assessment of the buildings sector in Colombia, analyzed the challenges and barriers to implementing zero carbon buildings, and identified the transformative actions needed to decarbonize buildings nationally.

Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (“Colombia Green Building Council” or CCCS) led the on-the-ground engagement and facilitation of the roadmap project, building off previous networks and relationships forged during its work with the Building Efficiency Accelerator. Though the roadmap was spearheaded by Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, an advisory committee of representatives from the Ministry of Housing, National Planning Department, City Planning Department of Bogotá, City Planning Department of Cali, CAMACOL – Colombian Construction Chamber, and CCCS served as the governing body of the project, promoting integration across national ministries and at multiple levels of government.

Toward Carbon Neutrality

Colombia’s NDCs call for a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The national roadmap for buildings is aligned with other implementation and monitoring plans for Colombia’s NDCs, and these new building decarbonization goals will support the country in achieving its NDCs.

Beyond the shorter time frame of the NDCs, Colombia’s Long-Term Climate Strategy (E2050), launched at COP26, calls for a carbon-neutral Colombia by 2050 through resilient development and a circular economy. As the Net Zero Buildings Roadmap considers the whole building lifecycle and provides short-, medium- and long-term goals for achieving carbon neutrality, it can be a model for other sectoral plans to reach these goals and a first step toward implementing the country’s circular economy vision.

With this new roadmap, Colombia’s national and local governments, private sector and civil society have recognized the necessity and impact of transforming the buildings and construction sector in achieving its NDC and E2050 goals.

When presenting the roadmap, Deputy Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development Nicolás Galarza Sánchez emphasized this point, saying that Colombia must reduce 174 million tons of emissions by 2030 to achieve its NDCs and the implementation of these transformative actions could reduce buildings sector emissions 53% by 2030. “This roadmap proves not only our commitment but also our ambition and vision for a carbon-neutral country,” he said.

Colombia’s goal of reaching net zero in all buildings by 2050 is an important step closer to being realized. The Zero Carbon Building Accelerator will continue working with Colombia by creating local action plans in Bogotá and Cali for implementation of the roadmap at the municipal level as well as policy updates for building codes nationally.

Kayla Rakes is the Engagement Coordinator for the Buildings Initiative at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

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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.

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As we reflect on priorities for transforming the sector and achieving net zero ambitions, here are five takeaways from COP26 that will inform how we advance building decarbonization in the new year:

1. Countries are getting serious about building decarbonization in their NDCs

As a part of COP26, 136 countries included building efficiency or building decarbonization in their climate goals, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), up from 88 countries in 2015. This is more than any other mitigation measure except renewable energy generation. The good news is that 80 of these countries have building energy codes at the national or sub-national level – and of these, 43 countries have mandatory codes. The not so good news is that 82% of estimated population growth by 2030 (and subsequent building construction to house all these new people) is in countries without mandatory building energy codes and 44% in countries without any building energy codes.

Turkey, which ratified the Paris Agreement in October, submitted new NDCs that highlight buildings and urban transformation as a key planning and policy area for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. WRI is supporting these efforts with the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator, which is working with Turkey to develop a national building decarbonization roadmap along with two city action plans for local implementation in Konya and Gaziantep.

2. More cities and regions are making public commitments to net-zero carbon and building decarbonization

COP26 saw more nations and cities endorse commitments to net-zero emissions than ever before. Over a thousand cities have now signed up to Cities Race to Zero to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest, an incredible step toward a more sustainable future.

With the built environment responsible for nearly 40% of energy-related emissions, transforming the building sector on a global scale will be crucial to achieving net-zero goals. With that in mind, UNEP and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction launched the Buildings as a Critical Climate Solution Commitment at COP26. WRI co-hosted a kick-off event with GlobalABC where governments discussed the commitment and the importance of decarbonization roadmaps to move this into action. Colombia’s Vice Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development and the Planning Director of Cali, Colombia, joined to share their insights on aligning national roadmaps and action plans as a part of the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator.

Embodied carbon and materials, which includes the host of emissions associated with building construction, were hot topics at COP26 as actors in the construction sector detailed paths toward decarbonizing materials at every stage of the supply chain. New industry investment coupled with new commitments for net-zero futures had governments and funders discussing the need to accelerate the transition from efficiency in buildings to sectoral decarbonization.

During a panel co-hosted by WRI in the SDG7 Pavilion, Kedibone Modiselle, director of mitigation programs and sustainability resource mobilization for Tshwane, South Africa, highlighted her city’s achievements as a part of the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA), including the development of a building efficiency and green building hub, city retrofitting guidelines for building efficiency, and capacity building through stakeholder engagements and retrofitting trainings. Now, Tshwane is in the process of creating a climate action plan to become a carbon neutral and resilient city by 2050. Zero-carbon buildings will be key in achieving the plan’s objectives and lowering whole-lifecycle carbon emissions by including renewable energy sources and green building guidelines to reduce embodied carbon in building materials.

Other governments, like Chile, Yucatan and Finland, also spoke about their interest in pursuing zero-carbon buildings and the climate impacts of this transition. With 60 cities a part of the BEA network already working on advancing energy efficiency projects and policies, there is great potential to capitalize on this interest and expand on activities to include whole-lifecycle building decarbonization.

3. Collaboration between national and local governments is critical to driving action

While building efficiency policies such as building codes are under the control of local jurisdictions, achieving building decarbonization at scale requires renewable energy resources, low-carbon building materials, electrification of heating, and efficient cooling, all of which tend to be under national jurisdiction. As we heard more nations commit to developing roadmaps for decarbonization at COP26, it will be crucial that cities are included in the planning process for successful implementation.

As a part of a panel in the GEF Pavilion, Carolina Urrutia, secretary of the environment for Bogotá, shared her city’s work in the BEA to develop an implementation protocol of the national building code. She worked collaboratively between the Ministry of Environment and the urban planning department, something that had not happened previously. Seeing the impact of a unified front, Bogotá is now bringing this cooperative spirit to the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator. The city is now integrated into the national planning for building decarbonization process, sitting on the advisory committee guiding the national roadmap development and giving input on the challenges and opportunities for implementation at the local level. This kind of national-local collaboration is fundamental as nations develop roadmaps for building and construction sector transformation.

4. Private equity has a role to play in building decarbonization investment

The private sector made it clear at COP26 that they want to take a more active role in finding solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In the last 10 years, private equity has surpassed nearly all other asset classes in growth. While the industry has been slow to align its investments with climate action efforts, more firms are beginning to recognize that climate change is both an investment risk and opportunity.

To successfully transform the buildings sector, private equity needs to invest in the decarbonization of their real estate assets and make improvements in the facilities of their portfolio companies.  They also need to partner with energy services providers and invest in start-up companies that provide innovative climate technology and solutions that address every phase of the building carbon lifecycle. Sustainable real estate investors and private equity firms can play a key role in pushing the market toward zero carbon buildings through their development standards and public reporting of commitments and performance.  

At the International Chamber of Commerce’s Make Climate Action Everyone’s Business Forum, we heard from Mikkel Bülow-Lehnsby, co-founder of Nordic Real Estate Partners, about his private equity firm’s investment strategies to make the urban value chain more efficient and the industry more customer-centric and sustainable. With successful investments in new green developments and built environment technologies addressing embodied carbon and clean energy, the firm has been able to deliver investors a 20% internal rate of return over the last 20 years, according to Bülow-Lehnsby. As more nations commit to net-zero emissions, the private sector has a huge business opportunity to transform the building sector and real estate market.

5. Many cities have implemented successful pilots, but we need to focus on scaling up

Throughout COP26, cities and subnational governments that are part of the BEA network spoke about their successes in developing policies, implementing pilot projects and reporting impressive progress. But leaders also recognized that to achieve climate goals, this work needs to be scaled, which will require additional financial and technical support.

During his presentation at the SDG7 Pavilion, Nyambayar Munkhchuluun, head of the Ulaanbaatar Environment Department, identified reducing heat loss in buildings as a key element to increasing efficiency and decreasing energy consumption in Mongolia and shared how the city analyzed its building stock and started retrofitting inadequate public housing as a part of the BEA. The city was able to leverage this work to garner additional support from the Global Green Growth Institute and GIZ, the German development agency, expanding an initial pilot project to help meet the city and nation’s target to lower greenhouse gas emissions 27% by 2030. Ultimately, this kind of work will need to be scaled in every city in every country to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

The successes shared and commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow represent significant progress in recognizing the importance of building decarbonization for global climate action. Much remains to be done, but progress in these five areas will put us on the right path toward a future where buildings are green, clean and healthy for all.

Kayla Rakes is the Engagement Coordinator for the Buildings Initiative at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

Clay Nesler is a Senior Fellow for Buildings and Energy at WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

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Global building floorspace is projected to double by 2060 and only 3% of investment in new construction is green and efficient, locking in high emissions for decades. The renovation rate for existing buildings is barely 1%, less than a third of the rate needed to meet the Paris climate goals.

While the decarbonization challenges for buildings are significant, so are the opportunities. Efficient, zero carbon buildings take advantage of available, cost-effective technology to reduce emissions while increasing health, equity and economic prosperity in local communities.

There are four crucial trends driving zero carbon buildings: decarbonization, electrification, efficiency and digitalization. These four good “DEEDS” work in combination to reduce the carbon emissions and overall cost of building operations and supporting infrastructure. Buildings can achieve zero carbon (or zero carbon ready) performance by eliminating fossil fuel use for heating, using on-site and/or off-site renewable energy, reducing the use of high global warming potential refrigerants and using low-carbon, reused or recycled materials in construction.

Global warming will itself result in more electricity demand as previously moderate regions, as recently occurred in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, require air conditioning to minimize heat stress. Unseasonably cold weather can also increase electricity demand in warmer regions. This will, in some cases, result in higher costs for building owners due to the lower (often subsidized) cost of fossil energy and increased electricity infrastructure investment for expanded generation, transmission, distribution and management of an increasingly intermittent renewable energy supply.

Energy efficiency must remain a top priority for zero carbon buildings, even with a decarbonized energy supply. Every dollar invested in energy efficiency saves about two dollars in energy supply, whether that investment is made in local, on-site generation or at a grid level. It also reduces the total cost of future grid infrastructure to meet increased demand. While passive measures, such as increased insulation and higher efficiency equipment, can reduce overall electrical demand, active efficiency measures including automated demand response and dynamic energy optimization can provide demand flexibility to match intermittent renewable generation.

Digitalization is an important enabler of energy efficiency and demand flexibility in buildings. These “smart” buildings benefit from advanced sensing and controls, systems integration, data analytics and energy optimization to actively reduce energy use and demand while also improving occupant comfort, health, productivity and facility resilience. Embedding these digital capabilities in “smart” equipment and appliances can provide additional benefits including improved reliability and remote management in addition to energy and emissions reductions.

The potential energy savings from smart buildings is significant. Basic automated building controls can save 10-15% of energy in commercial buildings. More advanced functionality, such as demand-controlled ventilation, can save an additional 5-10% in energy. Integrating building systems together can yield incremental energy savings of 8-18% over basic HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and lighting control. Energy Information Management Systems that use advanced metering infrastructure and monitor the end use in buildings save 3% on average, while automated fault detection and diagnostics can save an average of 9% in energy use.

A recent study suggests that Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings can reduce energy costs by up to 20% through active demand management. Energy optimization can control a building’s energy use based on the real-time carbon intensity of the grid and coordinate the use of clean heating resources with backup fossil fuel equipment to minimize carbon emissions on a 24/7 basis while providing demand flexibility and resilience.

The Unisphere building in Silver Spring, Maryland, is one of the largest net zero energy projects in the U.S. It incorporates geothermal heat pumps, on-site solar energy and an integrated control system including HVAC, lighting, energy and dimmable windows. The eight-story office building of the Powerhouse Brattorkaia in Trondheim, Norway, is energy positive across the entire building lifecycle, including energy consumed in producing and transporting building materials, on-site construction and end-of-life deconstruction. The building has 3,000m² of solar panels and a natural refrigerant heat pump at its water source that provides cooling and heating. The building is highly efficient, incorporating both passive and active measures, including occupant adaptive HVAC and lighting systems.

Global warming and climate change will also have a strong impact on tropical climate regions where buildings’ energy consumption is driven by rising demand in electrical cooling. Singapore’s decarbonization strategy in its Green Plan for 2030 has an ambitious goal to quadruple solar energy deployment by 2025 and achieve 2GWp (gigawatts peak) of solar energy by 2030. From 2030, 80% of new buildings will be “Super Low Energy buildings” with an 80% improvement in energy efficiency compared to 2005 consumption levels for best-in-class green buildings. At least 20% of schools will be carbon neutral by 2030.

The NUS School of Design and Environment 4 (SDE4) is the first newly built, net zero energy building in Singapore and is the first building in South-East Asia to be awarded the Zero Energy Certification by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). The six-level building features an innovative hybrid cooling system to effectively reduce the building’s energy consumption. Advanced monitoring of occupancy, space usage, indoor air quality and weather conditions helps optimize system operation. Electricity produced by 428 kWp of rooftop solar panels is used to power all systems with any excess exported dynamically to the campus grid for adjacent building usage. Since its opening in January 2019, the building has been net energy positive, it produces more energy than it consumes, by more than 460 MWh.

The SMU-X Net Zero Energy Building, Singapore city center’s first large-scale mass engineered timber building has offset 100% of its yearly energy consumption through a photovoltaic system located at the building. Elsewhere, the NUS School of Design and Environment 1 and 3 (SDE 1&3) is a highly efficient, renovated building with an advanced building façade that balances the amounts of natural light and heat entering the building and an advanced lighting control system and a solar roof to meet net zero energy performance. The Development Bank of Singapore’s Newton office is a renovation project of an existing four-level building aiming for 70% energy savings and net zero energy performance with the installation of bi-facial photovoltaic modules (photovoltaics panels that can produce power from both sides) with advanced Internet of Things power optimization technology on the building roof.

All these buildings show just how critical digitalization is as a factor in clean electricity for heating in the global north and cooling in the global south. It is also a crucial element in achieving efficient, zero carbon building performance while reducing future investment in electric grid infrastructure – a top priority if we are to meet the 2050 goals.

This article was originally posted by the World Economic Forum.

Clay Nesler is Global Lead for Buildings at World Resources Institute.

Khee Poh Lam is Dean of the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore.

Bertrand Lasternas is Associate Director – Energy Manager at the National University of Singapore.

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