The green building industry is red hot around the world.
- Brazil is host this month to the 6th Greenbuilding International Conference and Expo in South America.
- The World Bank Group is partnering with real estate organizations to promote green building and resource efficiency in India.
- Canada is aggressively addressing greenhouse gas emissions in its building sector.
- Chinese has become the most popular foreign language for LEED exams.
Much of this activity involves the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a private membership-based nonprofit that promotes sustainability in building design, construction and operation.
Among the USGBC international initiatives are:
- This week’s release of LEED in Motion: Brazil, a report showing significant gains in the green building market in Brazil and year-over-year growth in LEED certifications. The report comes simultaneously with the Brazilian green building industry’s hosting of Greenbuilding Brasil International Conference and Expo, South America?s premier green building conference.
- Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), an American organization that provides third-party credentialing and verification for several rating systems relating to the built environment, has been selected by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group to offer the EDGE green building certification system in India. By helping to incrementally push India?s new construction market forward, EDGE jumpstarts the mainstreaming of green buildings to help counter climate change. GBCI was established in 2008 with the support of USGBC.
EDGE is a measurable way for builders to optimize their designs, leading to more investment-worthy and marketable products. What’s more, strategies that apply to an EDGE project can later be leveraged and upgraded to sustainable building techniques involving LEED.
- USGBC?s ranking of 2015?s Top 10 Countries for LEED has highlighted and stimulated significant advances in international efforts to transform the environment in ways that promote a healthier, more sustainable future. According to USGBC reports, the Canadian government has set the standard for LEED after recently identifying buildings as the fourth leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, contributing to 12 percent of the country’s overall emissions by sector. Since 2005, emissions from the building sector have dropped in Canada even as the population has risen and the national building stock has grown larger.
- The most popular foreign language LEED exam is the Chinese version, not surprising given last November’s historic climate change agreement between China and the United States. LEED?s role as a major driver of market transformation in China has been extensively documented in USGBC?s LEED in Motion: Greater China report published earlier in 2014. USGBC also offers exams in Spanish, Portuguese, French and Arabic.
USGBC and its partners like GBES have a proud record of advancing the idea and initiatives of sustainability around the world.
