C40 Cities has launched a coalition of cities and construction companies in a bid to accelerate the decarbonisation of the built environment sector.
The Clean Construction Action Coalition (CCAC) was inaugurated at COP26 yesterday, and includes 11 companies from the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry: the American Institute of Architects (AIA), BuildX, Building Transparency, Buro Happold, Dar Group, Holcim, Perkins & Will, Multiplex, Ramboll, Turner Construction, and Stora Enso.
The companies join five cities from the C40 network: Budapest, Los Angeles, Oslo, Mexico City, and San Francisco.
The coalition aims to harness expertise and solutions from across the construction value chain and realise the C40 mayors’ pledge.
C40 Cities hopes that joint actions from cities, industry, and workers will halve emissions from the global built environment sector by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Power in Partnerships
London N. Breed, Mayor of San Francisco, said: “We’re looking forward to our growing partnership with C40 and the critical work ahead with the Clean Construction Action Coalition as we inspire the public and private sectors to decarbonise our buildings and create a healthier environment for our communities.”
Mark Watts, Executive Director C40 Cities, said: “We need to radically change the way we plan, design, build and maintain the buildings and infrastructure of our cities to dramatically cut emissions and therefore its impact on the climate crisis.
“The role of mayors and municipal governments is to create and shape markets, setting a clear direction for mission driven firms to prosper from sustainable construction quickly becoming the norm.”
Peter Exley, president of American Institute of Architects (AIA), said: “Partnership between our cities, fellow citizens, industry, the academy, and architects is so critical to achieving sustainable and resilient communities for all.
“The AIA stands committed to working with civic and corporate leaders–at every level–to ensure we make the meaningful changes that are truly needed to move the needle on climate action.”
Callum Tuckett, Managing Director at Multiplex UK, said: “Put simply, the construction industry needs to stop talking, thinking and procrastinating and just do.
“This means focusing on the biggest difference we can make within our sphere of influence. Contractors like us and our supply chains are doing things, but we need to do more and need to work harder to reduce the carbon impact of delivering buildings, with 38% of global energy-related carbon emissions coming from the built environment.”
Lars Völkel, EVP Wood Products at Stora Enso, said: “We welcome the C40 Clean Construction Declaration. There is an urgent need to reduce embodied emissions from building materials.
“Low carbon materials such as mass timber exist today, and they need to be promoted from the earliest planning stages of building projects to help achieve net zero buildings and cities.”
C40 and the Building and Woodworkers International global union also released a joint statement to recognise the role of workers in delivering the actions cities and companies are taking, and define what is needed to deliver the change the coalition wants.
Image credit: taka1022/shutterstock
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