Building and Real Estate Climate Declaration
Ceres
The U.S. Green Building Council and the Carbon Leadership Forum are collaborating with Ceres to spearhead the Building and Real Estate Climate Declaration campaign.
Download a list of all signatories
The Built Sector Takes Action on Climate Change
The commercial and residential building sector accounts for 39% of carbon emissions in the United States per year, more than any other sector. Most of the carbon emissions are a result of heating, cooling and lighting our built environments. By transforming the built environment to be more energy-efficient and climate-friendly, the building sector can play a major role in reducing the threat of climate change.
“For us, signing the Building & Real Estate Sector Climate Declaration was common sense,” said Gunnar Hubbard, Principal and Sustainability Practice Leader at Thornton Tomasetti. “As an innovative business, we stand to gain financially from good policies that recognize the reality of climate change and, because we believe reducing greenhouse gases is the responsible thing to do, our firm continues to do its part to reduce emissions through our core business practices and services.”
THORNTON TOMASETTI
Thornton Tomasetti’s Sustainability Practice works with clients to provide sustainable design solutions for their building projects.
- They have established the goal of obtaining climate neutral business operations by 2030 and climate neutral buildings by 2030.
- Their sustainability initiatives include LEED Gold+ certification of all new offices and major office renovations over 4,000 sf.
JLL
JLL is a professional services and investment management company that specializes in real estate. They provide sustainability services to their clients and aim to incorporate sustainability into their practices.
- Total GHG emissions averted from renewable energy projects in 2014 were more than 62,000 metric tons of CO2.
- In 2015, they received the ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award for the fourth consecutive year.
- In 2014, they helped deliver energy savings for U.S. clients of 477 million kWh, which is roughly equivalent to the average annual energy consumption of more than 30,000 homes.
SKANSKA
Skanska is a global project development and construction group that provides construction services and the fosters development of public-private partnerships.
- Skanska began using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in 2006, and has since developed their own Sustainability Agenda to better focus strategies and actions by estimating the trade-off between economic, social and environmental factors.
- They aim to achieve “zero waste” in all of their construction processes.
AUTODESK
Autodesk is a multinational software corporation. Autodesk Sustainability Solutions provide analysis tools for green building design, manufacturing energy modeling and sustainable infrastructure projects.
- In 2015, they announced a commitment to power their business with 100% renewable energy.
- Their carbon footprint saw a 27% reduction since their baseline year in 2009.
WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF
WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the world’s leading engineering and professional services consulting firms, provides services designed to transform the built environment and restore the natural one. The firm’s expertise ranges from environmental remediation and urban planning, to engineering iconic buildings and designing sustainable transport networks, to developing the energy sources of the future and enabling new ways of extracting essential resources.
- Global sustainability strategy addressing our people, projects, and operations
- U.S. Regional sustainability focus on project approaches incorporating adaptation and resiliency
WEBCOR BUILDERS
Webcor Builders is a commercial construction contractor. They incorporate sustainability in many of the phases of their building process; from internal operations to design and construction and material life cycle.
- More than 98% of their 2014 revenue was generated from LEED projects, and more than 35 million SF and $11.2 billion of LEED projects were completed.
- More than 62% of their completed LEED projects are Platinum or Gold certification.
- They are the #1 Green Builder by volume of work (according to the 2014 rating by ENR).
- They employ 150 LEED-Accredited Professionals.
ARUP
Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists who believe that our work in the built environment leaves a significant legacy. This power, to design and influence the built environment, carries with it a responsibility to do the best possible job for current and future generations. Arup’s insight across sectors allows it to craft effective carbon solutions for a single building, to entire communities. Our work includes:
- Creating many of the buildings considered to be exemplars of low carbon worldwide – such as the California Academy of Sciences (a double LEED® Platinum rated building and the largest LEED Platinum public building in the world), Pfizer’s California research campus (which cut 5,000 tons of CO2), the Stanford Y2E2 Building, and the Cornell Tech Bloomberg Center (both ZNE buildings)
- Co-authoring several reports addressing climate resilience, such the C40 cities Climate Action in Megacities (CAM 2.0) report, ZNE Feasibility report for the SF Public Utilities Commission, and the Washington DC Sustainability Plan
- Helping clients such as Hyatt, Proctor and Gamble, Aldo, Intercontinental Hotel Group, and SFO Airport understand and manage their carbon output
- Assisting cities of Seattle and San Francisco in creating policies that led to recognition from the White House as the first of 16 Climate Action Champions
BUILDING ROBOTICS
Building Robotics, the makers of Comfy, puts people and the occupant experience at the center of the smart building.
- Building Robotics’ software Comfy brings together comfort and energy efficiency: the software platform plugs into existing building systems and allows people to request instant environmental adjustments in their workplaces to improve personal comfort and productivity. Over time, Comfy learns from people’s requests and optimizes for comfort and energy efficiency.
- Comfy clients have experienced 15-25% HVAC energy savings, improved worker happiness and productivity, and reduced operational costs.
CEM DESIGN
Founded in 1981 in Rockville, Maryland, CEM Design is an architectural and engineering consulting and design firm that promotes sustainable building design.
- Each of their projects are designed to take advantage of solar orientation, environmental amenities, and accessibility.
- Energy conservation, application of passive solar design principles, and where appropriate, active solar, wind, geothermal, and photovoltaic energy alternatives are incorporated into all projects.
CIEL POWER LLC
Ciel Power is an insulation and heating contractor that develops sustainability partnerships with towns, businesses, and academic institutions throughout New Jersey.
- Partnerships are comprised of a joint effort to promote energy efficiency by retrofitting older housing stock with significant efficiency upgrades including air-sealing, insulation, heating, and cooling equipment.
- Their collective partnerships have resulted in thousands of home energy audits and hundreds of residential energy-efficiency upgrades.
SERA ARCHITECTS
SERA is a multi-discipline firm committed to sustainable place-making at every scale.
- SERA collaborated with another architectural firm on a building in downtown Portland, demonstrating how buildings can be transformed to use fewer resources.
- When their 1974 office tower reopened in 2013, its water use was cut by 60% (due to rainwater collection, low-flow fixtures and storm water controls) and its energy use dropped 60% because of an improved envelope, efficient heating and cooling system and a rooftop photovoltaic array.
URBAN FABRICK
Urban Fabrick is a sustainability and collaborative design consulting and communications company that promotes sustainable building and renovation practices. Much of their work involves water reuse in California:
- Their foundation, Urban Fabrick Collaborative, works to educate and implement water reuse strategies and polices at the building and district scale.
- One of their projects includes a new building in San Francisco that has included a Membrane Bio Reactor for grey water reuse that is projected to save 1.3 million gallons of potable water per year.
FENTREND
Fentrend helps Architects and Developers find and better understand window & door options for their project as it relates to cost, design, and energy performance requirements.
- Windows and doors account for much of the loss of heat and cool air in buildings, and Fentrend helps builders by recommending the most energy efficient products.
- They provide builders access to energy and efficiency information from a network of manufacturers.
SEVENTHWAVE
Seventhwave works to influence stakeholders to make deep energy savings in buildings by choosing technologies and approaches that mitigate the effects of climate change.
- They have driven energy savings on more than 300 new construction projects in Illinois, resulting in over 35,000 MWh estimated annual electricity savings.
- In November 2013, they re-located their headquarters to a LEED Platinum certified building in Madison, WI.
GREEN BUILDING ALLIANCE
Green Building Alliance is the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. GBA’s Pittsburgh 2030 District has made significant steps toward reducing the region’s carbon footprint:
- The District has committed to achieve 50% reductions in energy use, water use, and transportation emissions by the year 2030.
- Since the program’s launch in 2012, there has been a 17.9% reduction in energy use in Downtown Pittsburgh and they have achieved an overall 6.3% reduction from the national energy baseline.
- Their initiatives has saved over 503 million kBtu (the equivalent of 5,562 homes’ annual energy use) and 53 million gallons of water (the equivalent to 362 homes’ annual water use), resulting in a 10% reduction in water use in Downtown.