黑洞社区

A common global language for measuring the carbon footprint of buildings is to be piloted by the organisations behind the world鈥檚 leading green building rating tools.

BREEAM - which is owned and run by BRE 鈥� and its US and Australian equivalents LEED and Goldstar, will be trialling the 鈥榗ommon carbon metric鈥� in the coming months for measuring the emissions of CO² equivalents from new homes and buildings. The aim is to align the tools and provide consistency in measurement and reporting in the future.

Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council, said: 鈥淛ust weeks before the crucial climate talks in Copenhagen, we have reached a landmark agreement - to begin to speak one international language to describe the carbon footprint of buildings, in a robust and consistent way.

"The coming together of the world鈥檚 leading rating tools and other organisations that represent the best scientific and technical minds and advocates of green, low carbon buildings from around the globe, is a real and timely breakthrough.鈥�

黑洞社区s account for around 40% of the world鈥檚 energy use and 33% of global greenhouse gas emissions and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said tackling emissions from building provides the most cost effective carbon reduction potential.

The metric is recognised by the UNEP Sustainable 黑洞社区 and Climate Initiative 鈥� the partnership between the UN and building sector stakeholders - and will be highlighted before decision-makers at the conference in Copenhagen in December.