The annual World Green Building Week organised by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) — #BuildingTheTransition — calls on the global building and construction sector to accelerate the transition to secure an energy efficient, regenerative and just future for all.

Led by a network of over 75 national Green Building Councils (GBCs) and their 46,000 members, the week-long event will show how through systems change thinking, and leveraging local solutions, the building and construction industries can transition to sustainable built environments.

This year sees the world’s first Global Stocktake, expected to show the status of our efforts in implementing the Paris Agreement. Political and private sector leaders across the world are asking “how far have we come?”, and importantly, “how far do we still have to go?” in order to tackle the worst impacts of global warming, humanitarian challenges and economic uncertainties.

The WorldGBC campaign supports the view that the world must undergo a transition to ensure better outcomes for nature and people. The Council say this transition “requires systemic transformation across all sectors, including buildings and construction. An urgent understanding of what the transition entails, and a profound shift in how all stakeholders think and act on any given choice is imperative to secure an equitable and just future for all.”

Throughout World Green Building Week, WorldGBC’s network will host events across the world and share examples of #BuildingTheTransition across three themes: the energy transition, regenerative transition and just transition.

This year’s campaign will also lead into the UN’s 2023 SDG Summit (18–19 September) and therefore pinpoint 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that are essential to catalyse a sustainable built environment.

#BuildingTheTransition’s three themes highlight how the built environment can support the Paris Agreement and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:

The Energy Transition

The energy transition is about more than switching to renewable energy — it’s a complete systemic change. Accelerating the uptake of built environments that reduce energy demand, store and share clean energy, and produce more energy than they use. It’s about investing in clean technologies and driving economies of scale. And it’s deep retrofitting existing buildings to be exceptionally energy efficient.

The Regenerative Transition

How do we advance regenerative principles in the built environment from niche to normal? Our planet’s resources give us life, but they are not infinite. Humans and the built environment must exist together within a cycle of natural systems. That means not just protecting biodiversity but prioritising its restoration, embracing nature-based solutions, and creating a thriving circular economy across the entire building value chain.

The Just Transition

We cannot achieve climate justice without social justice. The people who have contributed the least to environmental degradation are suffering the biggest consequences. Equality is not the same as equity. Advancing a just transition in the built environment means committed solidarity to protect human rights from financial flows, to supply chains, to geopolitics. 

Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council: “In the run up to COP28 in Dubai, UAE, and in the world’s first Global Stocktake year, we must remember that 1.5ºC is a limit, not a target. Our aim cannot be to only avoid the worst-case scenario when we are capable of so much more. The building and construction sector has the ability to mobilise and scale available solutions now to deliver a future that is energy efficient, regenerative and just.”

Find out more and join the social media campaign at @WorldGBC, #BuildingTheTransition and #WGBW23.

Recommended further reading:

Editorial: We must do better
Editorial: Chris Barton on no more blah, blah, blah
Editorial: Chris Barton on reversing climate change