The call for an international baseline measureable standard which provides a common language for measuring greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency of buildings is growing. Increased political will and awareness may make it happen.

The China Economic Review, for example, talking about the World Expo in Shanghai said: “A credible evaluation system is needed to benchmark buildings against sustainability performance so that developers and land owners can make design decisions by considering capital investment, life-cycle costs and the level of building sustainability achieved.”

And from Europe, for example, Bayer MaterialScience, a division of Bayer AG, has given its support to a proposal by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) for a globally consistent Common Carbon Metric for Buildings.

The UNEP Sustainable Building & Climate Initiative says energy from buildings could be cut by 30-50% by 2020. It says the building’s operational phase (heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and appliances) accounts for 80-90% of emissions and this is where the focus of the common metric is.

Working with a range of partners, a complementary methodology has been developed. One method assesses performance at the building level (bottom up) and the other at regional and national level (top down).

The reporting is done by weight of carbon equivalent (kg Co2e) emitted per square metre per year kgCO2 e/m2/yr by building type and climate region.

Stakeholders will develop the protocol to guide the implementation of a series of pilot projects to test the Common Carbon Metric. Individual buildings and building stocks will measure emissions from building operations over a 12 month period to establish baselines by building type in climate regions.

UNEP-SBCI says it is providing a neutral forum for the building sector to come together and develop the common metrics including particularly those stakeholders involved in developing tools and methods for assessing and rating the environmental performance of buildings.

As Arab Hoballah, chief sustainable consumption & production UNEP DTIE, says: “without a common voice, a common language, and a common approach to accounting for emissions, the sector is unable to participate cost effectively in the global carbon market.”