Background
According to Architecture 2030, buildings generate nearly 40% annual global GHG emissions, changing the trajectory is essential to preventing climate change. This, however, is not an easy task. Approximately two-thirds of the building area that exists today will still exist in 2050. Renovations affect less than 1% of building stock annually. Global building stock will double in area by 2060. In fact, the world is currently undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in human history – more than half of the global population is now concentrated in urban centers and by 2060 two thirds of the expected population will live in cities. It was also recognized the built environment affects health in several ways.
Leading companies, non-profit organizations and academic leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. to discuss current global and local trends and best practices.
Event Summary Highlights
Headlines included in the event summary are highlighted below.
- Aging infrastructure is an opportunity.
- Don’t talk about rockets talk about where you live.
- Government standards for improved performance can accelerate integrated building design and improvement in the built environment.
- Embedded carbon should be recognized when choosing building materials.
- Sustainable design costs 7% less to build, lowers operating costs and improves resilience.
- Metering, sub-metering and controls are key enablers to performance.
- Contextual water targets consider impact at the water basin level.
- The Ecolab Smart-Water Navigator enables companies to build facility level roadmaps that will help mitigate water risk.
Companies have the opportunity to create impact across their value chain Please also find a link to photographs taken during the event.
WEC is honored that Ingersoll Rand released its 2030 Sustainability Commitments the day of Innovation in the Built Environment. One of the commitments was to reduce customer carbon footprint by 1 gigaton (or 1 billion metric tons of CO2e) while achieving carbon neutral operations, effectively becoming a positive net contributor to society.
WEC thanks our event sponsor Ingersoll-Rand, without their support this event would not have been possible.
