Green building rating groups energize sustainable finance

Source: U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C.; CP staff

The U.S. Green Building Council has joined Building Research Establishment (BRE), London, and Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), Sydney, in an industry-first alliance advancing the sustainable finance required for the built environment to play its role in meeting global climate goals. The three organizations aim to ensure investors, property owners, developers and governments have the information needed to enact transformational change in residential and commercial building design and operation.

“[Our] community has proved that buildings can accelerate global decarbonization while advancing critical human health, climate resilience, and social equity imperatives,” says USGBC CEO Peter Templeton. “Increasing the flow of capital to buildings and portfolios delivering these outcomes is essential to expanding the scale and impact of this work.”

**Projects the world over carry Building Research Establishment, Green Building Council of Australia and U.S. Green Building Council certification.**

BRE, GBCA and USGBC will move to demonstrate the critical role that construction project verification and certification schemes play in supporting Environment, Social and Governance reporting—primarily by raising real estate and finance sector awareness of BREAM, Green Star and LEED. As the world’s top green building rating systems, they collectively help hundreds of thousands of buildings and projects drive towards net zero and ESG goals. The first in a series of alliance deliverables will be publication of a practical guide at London Climate Action Week in June 2024, exploring green loans or bonds and other sustainable finance instruments currently available to the real estate market. The guide will build on an initial GBCA document released to the Australian market in 2023. The upcoming alliance version is set to demonstrate how rating systems like BREEAM, Green Star and LEED ensure compliance with multiple sustainable classification frameworks used globally.

“Through our new alliance with the GBCA and USGBC, we hope to strengthen global cooperation between the finance and real estate industries, and in doing so increase the uptake of sustainable finance mechanisms and deliver a decarbonized built environment across the world,” notes BRE CEO Gillian Charlesworth.

“This global alliance shows that the world’s major sustainability rating systems are aligned—not just on climate science—but on how we can ensure that all buildings are able to transition to a decarbonized future,” adds GBCA CEO Davina Rooney. “As we move through a global sustainable finance revolution, together, we have the potential to unlock significant benefits for buildings, people and the environment.”