Over the past seven days, thousands of climate action advocates – businesses, Green Building Councils, communities, NGOs and individuals – joined together to celebrate the power of green buildings during World Green Building Week 2017.
The week, which ended yesterday, highlighted the need for net zero carbon buildings under the banner of #OurHeroIsZero. And there were plenty of heroes, with people hosting and attending nearly 250 events and activities listed on our Hero Action Map, and many more taking place around the world.
With such an eventful week, there were lots of highlights (too many to mention individually). But here are just a few…
Our Thunderclap campaign kick starting the week reached over 2.6 million people on social media, and millions more were reached throughout the week.
Hundreds of people adapted and posed with the Our Hero Is Zero sign, showing what they wanted from their buildings. Check them out on Twitter.
WorldGBC gained media coverage in a number of media outlets, including Triple Pundit, Devex, and GreenBiz, and major organisations like UN Environment helped to champion the week.
Our staff blogged about the heroes of the green building movement, and a special visit to a school to educate the next generation of green builders.
We announced that four new Green Buildings Councils have joined our global Advancing Net Zero project.
Green Building Councils from our membership engaged heavily in the week, with Emirates GBC publishing a report on nearly zero energy buildings (nZEBs); the Irish GBC launched a report on Irish construction professionals’ energy efficiency knowledge and upskilling needs; USGBC talked about the alignment of their platform Arc and net zero carbon buildings; New Zealand GBC offered a great account of what it’s like to live in a green building; and Alliance HQE-France GBC secured French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot as a Patron for the week in France.
Our corporate partners also back the week. JPMorgan Chase hosted a kick-off event in New York on the bank’s new net zero strategy; Philips lighting unveiled new research showing that businesses could collectively save up to $1.5tn through efficient use of office space; Shaw Contract published its latest sustainability report; ROCKWOOL talked about how it is using innovation to achieve net zero buildings; Integral Group hosted introductory webinars on net zero buildings with WorldGBC; AkzoNobel released a series of blog posts on green buildings; and Saint-Gobain launched a new educational video on green buildings.
Major European institutions the European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) used the week to promote the launch of green building tool Level(s) and the release of publications on green building investment respectively. WorldGBC staff in Europe also blogged about the potential of Level(s) and how EBRD can benefit the work of Green Building Councils in Europe.
Hundreds of corporate members of Green Building Councils also took part in the week, with UKGBC member EVORA publishing a series of blogs throughout the week, and Cundall holding 20 ‘net positive’ events around the world.
Thanks to everyone who took part in this year’s World Green Building Week for making it a huge success!
You can catch-up on all the activity by following the hashtags #OurHeroIsZero and #WGBW2017. Or read more about World Green Building Week here.