iiSBE Plan B is launched

iiSBE has completed an updated version of its position paper on "Climate Change and Plan B", which outlines some of the major climate change issues that affect the built environment, and what steps may be taken to address them. Three of the files are available here.

We are now launching regional versions of this paper. So far we have colleagues in Egypt, Brazil, Philippines and Greece committed to participate. We welcome other expressions of interest to help develop versions that are suited to other regions. Please contact Nils Larsson at larsson@iisbe.org.

Staff

UN Habitat publishes a book on performance assessment

UN Habitat has just published Building Sustainability Assessment and Benchmarking: An Introduction, which provides a timely introduction and update to sustainable performance assessments for buildings. In addition to covering important general issues such as weighting of indicators and

The SBE Urban Challenge at WSBE17

Parallel sessions at WSBE17 in Hong Kong will include two 90-minute workshops focused on the performance assessment of small urban areas. The sessions are sponsored by iiSBE and will take place on 6 June (Session 56) and Session 98 (7 June).

The performance assessment of small urban areas is complex, since it raises questions of scale (how large is a small urban area?), suitable key performance indicators, appropriate reference performance benchmarks (similar areas or historical values or...?).

Research and professional teams from several countries will present, analyze and discuss their own approaches to small-area urban performance assessment in the session, supported by case studies where possible.

Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction

At the 2015 COP21 climate change conference in Paris, an announcement was made about the launch of a new international organization, the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (Global ABC), which will be a platform for participating organizations to report on their progress in meeting their commitments for greenhouse gas reductions (called Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) within the building sector. 23 countries and many large NGOs have joined to date.

iiSBE launches its international survey on GHG reductions

iiSBE has launched an international survey on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions within the built environment sector. The survey is intended to provide a perspective on the effectiveness of actions that may reduce the emission of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). We hope to make it available to many individuals around the world who are engaged in the production of building materials or equipment, the design of buildings and infrastructure or the operation of completed structures or buildings.