Construction players in Europe are paving the way to decarbonize building and construction by 2050

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To accelerate the decarbonization of buildings and construction, The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) unveiled a new policy strategy for the European Union in May 2022. The WorldGBC's flagship project, #BuildingLife, brings together ten European Green Building Councils to advance sustainability across Europe. These green building councils will create national and regional decarbonization roadmaps to assess the building and construction sector's overall carbon footprint. Several experts from the built environment and EU politicians attended a summit in May 2022 to unveil the roadmap to speed up decarbonization. This road map offers a schedule for suggested actions for EU policymakers to address CO2 emissions from operations, materials, and buildings and accelerate the decarbonization process by 2050.

Achieving decarbonization of the building sector ensures all buildings, including existing, new buildings, infrastructure, and renovations, are free from whole-life carbon (WLC). The four key routes to decarbonize the EU's built environment are building regulations, waste and circularity, sustainable procurement, and sustainable finance. 

In May 2022, The World Green Buildings Council announced seven new and existing companies such as CannonDesign, Deutsche Bank, GI Quo Vadis, Grab, Lamington Group, QIC Real Estate, and Schneider Electric to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment. Many of these companies were already involved in implementing techniques to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in their buildings. For instance,

• In April 2022, Schneider Electric, headquartered in France, announced two new solutions, EcoStruxure Building Operation 2022 and the SpaceLogic Insight-Sensor, to increase building sustainability and efficiency by achieving net-zero. The company is promising its customers that they can achieve up to 40% energy savings with these technologies. Building Operation 2022 provides integration, visibility, data from microgrids, renewable energy sources, EV charging stations, and already integrated fire, HVAC, and power systems.
• Lamington Group's hotel brand, room2, launched the world's first whole-life net-zero hometel in West London. This hometel takes all of its emissions into account, cuts them down and balances unavoidable emissions to zero. It can be concluded that all carbon emissions associated with the hometel, including materials used, operations, maintenance, refurbishment and demolition, will equal to zero. The company is also plannig to scale up the lodging capacity of room2 to 5000 by 2030.
• In April 2021, CannonDesign's mental health campus project with net-zero carbon emissions commenced in California. Five new buildings as part of this mental health campus are planned, and this project will be the first net-zero carbon emissions mental health campus in California. Every roof of the building and the site parking will be equipped with solar panels. This project is worth US$ 105 million and is scheduled for completion by December 2023. 

The World Green Buildings Council's strategic policies, coupled with key construction companies' interest in the decarbonization of buildings and the construction sector by 2050, are expected to accelerate the decarbonization of the building and construction sector shortly. 

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