Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Time to Amplify action in 50 cities by 2020

Today, at the Buildings Day organized during COP22 by the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, WBCSD announced a significant expansion to its project on energy efficiency in buildings.  

Known as EEB Amplify, the expansion will begin in 2017 and aims to include 50 cities by 2020. EEB Amplify uses a proven business-led methodology piloted in 10 cities over the last four years to develop and implement action plans on energy efficiency in buildings.

Partnerships are a key success factor in this approach, and WBCSD is proud to announce it has developed four partnerships with key partners in Europe, in the US and in India.

In Europe, Climate-KIC is joining forces with EEB Amplify through their Climate-KIC Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA). Together they will work across five cities in 2017 to boost demand for low-carbon building products and solutions (in Switzerland, France, UK, Germany and another country to be confirmed).

“Climate-KIC and WBCSD share the goal of increasing investment in energy efficiency in buildings in Europe and beyond. Our programs are complementary: Climate KIC´s Building Technology Accelerator program provides independent national market research with focus on business and climate impact opportunities for building innovation – both technologies and new business models. Together with the EEB platform we can take this insight to local markets and develop specific transformation action plans”. Katrin Hauser, Programme Manager, Climate-KIC.

In the USA, EEB Amplify will work with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) to activate market activity in American cities building on the success of the EEB platform in Houston.

In India, the Green Building Council will bring the WBCSD approach to five cities – three cities in 2017 and two in 2018: Pune, Mumbai, Kochi, Ahmadabad and Goa. The goal will be to establish a local network on energy efficiency in buildings following the example of Jaipur, one of the WBCSD’s 10 pilot markets.

Buildings are one of the largest end users of energy, consuming a third of global final energy and creating a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions. Population growth, urbanization and household wealth are all rising and energy use in buildings may double and possibly triple by 2050.  If widely adopted, current best practices and technologies could halve this amount by 2030, which will be necessary if we stand any chance to fulfill the Paris Agreement.

Eleven WBCSD member companies have invested over US$4M to demonstrate that their engagement framework can effectively increase market activity for energy efficient buildings – and promote sustainability and business opportunities. EEB Amplify will use this business-led approach, piloted in 10 markets over four years and captured in the Handbook on creating dynamic local markets for Energy Efficient Buildings released today.

Five EEB platforms have been set up so far in Houston, Warsaw, Jakarta, Jaipur and Shanghai. For instance, today the EEB platform in Poland has released a first ever benchmarking report entitled “Business for Climate. Operating Costs of Office Buildings” that will encourage transparency and data sharing among office buildings.

EEB Amplify is endorsed by the Sustainable Buildings & Construction Program of the UN 10 Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP SBC) and will be led by WBCSD in partnership with other program partners.

LafargeHolcim, United Technologies, AkzoNobel, ArcelorMittal, Arcadis, ENGIE, Infosys, Schneider Electric, SGS, Siemens, Skanska