UK Green Building Council - Our Priorities

Information Centre

We are developing an online guide to a whole range of information on sustainability in the built environment. Over time this will become increasingly well stocked with useful resources, reports and links. A lot of the information can be viewed by anyone, including a biodiversity portal, which has been developed as part of the work of the UK-GBC biodiversity task group. Some resources such as presentations and recordings from events are available to members only. Lead contact: Ellie.austin@ukgbc.org

Code for Sustainable Buildings

In March 2009, UK-GBC produced a report calling for the development of a Code for Sustainable Buildings, which would apply to both new and existing non-domestic buildings. Follow up work includes developing the business case/value proposition for sustainable buildings, linked to real data on building performance. Lead contact: Sarah.Jeffcote@ukgbc.org

Existing Homes

We completed a major piece of stakeholder engagement work on cutting carbon in our existing homes in October 2008, informing the development of the Government’s Heat and Energy Saving strategy and produced a follow up report on the “Pay As You Save” financial mechanism for retrofitting in August 2009. We continue to work in this policy area and are supporting Grand Designs ‘Great British Refurb’ campaign, which launched at Grand Designs Live in April. See www.greatbritishrefurb.co.uk for more details. Lead contact: John.Alker@ukgbc.org

Sustainability Training and Education Programme (STEP)

The UK GBC has been leading a property and construction sector initiative to determine and understand a growing industry demand for sustainability training and education. The feedback from both members and non-members has been that there is a need for such a cohesive offering and a strong positive response for the UK GBC to take a leadership role. See www.ukgbc.org/step for what we’re doing to take this forward. Lead contact: Chad.Harrell@ukgbc.org

Zero Carbon New Homes

UK-GBC chief executive Paul King chairs the Zero Carbon Hub board of directors and sits on the Government’s 2016 Task Force. UK-GBC are strong supporters of the 2016 zero carbon target and have been involved in zero carbon policy for some time, including through a UK-GBC task group that reported in May 2008. Lead contact: Jo.Wheeler@ukgbc.org

International Policy Task Force

UK-GBC is part of the World Green Building Council network, with sister organisations emerging all over the world. Collectively our membership is responsible for 50% of global construction, which – given the built environment accounts for almost half of global CO2 emissions – represents a huge opportunity for the Green Building Council network to have influence on a global scale. Our International Policy Task Force is working closely with the UN Environment Programme to put buildings higher up the agenda in the Copenhagen climate change negotiations. Lead contact: Jo.Wheeler@ukgbc.org

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