SBTi Building Guideline and Tool
The Science-based target initiative has released its building’s target setting guidance and tool for consultation. The building sector is responsible for about 40% of the world’s emissions. This new guidance will help set Scinece Based climate alignment targets for most actors in the building value chain. The exiciting novelty of this guidance is its coverage of the Embodied Emissions. Up until today, most climate alignment guidances in the building sector focused mainly on the operational emission of the building. With this new guidance, actors will be able to take control of their emissions in construction, refurbishment, and end-of-life of buildings.
The basis of this guidance is the Greenhouse Gas Protocol [1]https://ghgprotocol.org/ and SBTi criteria. It also uses other existing documents such as:
- Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials: Technical Guidance – Accounting and reporting of financed GHG emissions from real estate operations [2]https://carbonaccountingfinancials.com/files/downloads/ghg_emissions_real_estate_guidance_1.0.pdf
- Encord – GHG Protocol: Construction CO2e Measurement Protocol [3]https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/ENCORD-Construction-CO2-Measurement-Protocol-Lo-Res_FINAL_0.pdf
- UK Green Bulding Council: Guide to Scope 3 Reporting in Commercial Real Estate [4]https://ukgbc.org/resources/guide-to-scope-3-reporting-in-commercial-real-estate/
This document not only provides guidance for Target Setting but also covers Accounting and Reporting.
in 2018, CRREM, The Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor, published alignment pathways for operational emissions of buildings. The advantage of CRREM is the regional and asset type focus it provides. In January 2023, the CRREM initiative joined forces with SBTi to publish the second version of the CRREM pathways. Now this pathway is validated and put forward in the SBTi building guidance.
Above the operational emissions pathways, SBTi also presented an embodied pathway, which is a 1.5 degrees pathway developed by Ramboll a design and consultancy firm.
CRREM and Ramboll both use a downscaling methodology, meaning that they start with global decarbonization pathways and break them down to find the share of each sector, each building type, and each country. Even though CRREM does provides individual pathways for individual countries and a variety of asset types, Ramboll provides one single decarbonization pathway for only 4 asset types, mainly residential, office, retail and other.
| CRREM V2 | Ramboll | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Operational Emissions | Embodied Emissions: New Construction Upfront Emissions [5]The embodied carbon associated with building construction, including the extraction and processing of materials and the energy and water consumption in the production, assembly, and construction of … Continue reading[6]Ramboll also provides an alternative pathway for combined new construction and renovation. |
| Scenario | 1.5 Degrees | 1.5 Degrees with no or little overshoot with 50% likelihood |
| Property Types | 11 | 4 |
| Countries | 44 | One global pathway |
| Intensity Metric | CO2/m2 CO2e/m2 kWh/m2 |
CO2e/m2 CO2e % |
| Indicator Type | Intensity | Absolute, Intensity, Percentage Reduction |
| Validated SBTi | Yes | Yes |
References & Notes
| ↑1 | https://ghgprotocol.org/ |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | https://carbonaccountingfinancials.com/files/downloads/ghg_emissions_real_estate_guidance_1.0.pdf |
| ↑3 | https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/ENCORD-Construction-CO2-Measurement-Protocol-Lo-Res_FINAL_0.pdf |
| ↑4 | https://ukgbc.org/resources/guide-to-scope-3-reporting-in-commercial-real-estate/ |
| ↑5 | The embodied carbon associated with building construction, including the extraction and processing of materials and the energy and water consumption in the production, assembly, and construction of the building. This is distinct from “in-use” and “end of life” stages |
| ↑6 | Ramboll also provides an alternative pathway for combined new construction and renovation. |
