October 2019

NEW CIB Co-Sponsored Conference Proceedings
and Graz Declaration

SBE Graz, Austria

11 – 14 September 2019, Graz, Austria

We want to announce the publishing of the Conference
Proceedings that is related to the SBE Conference thatis held on 11 – 14 September 2019 in Graz, Austria.
The conference was very successful with 380 people
form 71 countries participating.
The proceedings, both as one pdf (with over 1000pages) and the separate conference papers areavailable for free and downloadable via this link andwill also be available via ICONDA and the SBE website
in the near future.
In their concluding statement, delegates called for themandatory introduction of specific targets and design
objectives aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions
throughout the building life cycle. They also assured
industry representatives and politicians of theirintention to make a contribution by developing thenecessary methodological principles, industry-focusedplanning and evaluation tools, and climate-friendly
construction solutions.
The Graz Declaration for Climate Protection in the Built
Environment was formulated, debated and agreed
upon by participants over the last three days at theSBE19 Graz.
You can find the text here after and also on theconference website www.sbe19.tugraz.at. If you agreewith the content of the declaration, please use the linkon the website to sign up and support the Graz
Declaration for Climate Protection in the Built
Environment. You can sign up as an individual person,or as an organization.

Graz Declaration of Climate Protection in theBuilt Environment
An intact natural environment is not only vital forhumankind but also provides the basis for furthersocial and economic development. For more than 30years, the international scientific community has
provided a strong body of evidence on the increasingly
high atmospheric concentrations of man-madegreenhouse gases (GHG) and the need to reduce thesein order to limit the damages and risks caused by
global warming. The UNFCCC has endorsed this andhas started international processes for collectively
reducing these harmful GHG-emissions. However, themost recent IPCC report¹ conclusively shows thatmuch more action is urgently needed if global warming
is to be kept within 1.5°C increase. These actions mustoccur in a much shorter time-span.
The operation of buildings is responsible forapproximately 40% of Europe’s energy consumption
and 36% of CO2 emissions, making them the single
largest cause of energy consumption and GHGemissions. In addition, there are energy consumption
and emissions caused by the manufacturing ofconstruction products for creation and refurbishmentof buildings and constructed assets.
²Urgent actions are needed to cut energy consumption
and GHG-emissions caused in construction productindustry as well as in the construction, facilities
management and real estate sectors. Therefore, thereduction of life cycle related carbon footprint ofconstruction works shall become an imperative.

CIB Newsletter

Good examples already show that it is feasible tocreate a net-zero GHG-emission built environment. In
addition to addressing climatic and environmental
concerns, these projects also engage with wider
societal concerns expressed in the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). ³ These positive examples
are proof of technical, social and economic feasibility.
There is an imperative to adopt these practices widely.
The objectives of limiting global warming requiretranslation into actions for the specific sectors andactors.
The signatories assembled in Graz (SBE19) therefore
declare:(1) Governments have a vital leadership role inestablishing and enforcing long-term principles,values and priorities and therefore must create
effective policies and frameworks for enabling thetransition towards net-zero GHG-emission built
environments. This includes the protection of thenatural basis for life – e.g. reducing theconcentration of atmospheric GHGs and theharmful impacts on society and the environment.
Legally binding international, national and local
requirements shall be put in place and respect
and include scientifically-based GHG-emission
targets to stay within a 1.5°C increase.
(2) Specific GHG-emission targets and budgets areneeded for the construction and property sectors these need to be scalable (both top-down andbottom-up for construction products, buildings,cities, building stocks) and have clearly defined
timeframes in order to deliver net-zero GHGemission levels by or before the middle of thiscentury. To be effective, targets and budgets
must be enshrined in legislation and standards.
Requirements need to be framed in terms ofperformance and ensure that no preference
should be given to certain technologies. As amatter of urgency and to avoid lock-in effects,
binding requirements must be introduced by 2025
due to the built environment’s long lifespan andimpacts.
(3) Operational energy on its own is not a sufficientmetric. It is necessary to limit both resource use
and GHG-emissions over the full life cycle. The
regulation of life-cycle related GHG-emissions
must therefore cover the production, construction,operation, maintenance, replacement,
refurbishment and end of life of buildings.⁴present practices, creating new capacities anddriving innovation. Their performance must be
monitored and publicly reported on a regularbasis, including their GHG-emissions over their
entire lifecycle.
(5) Public support programs should be created for
projects and interventions (i.e. individual or mass
retrofits) with an above-average contribution tomeet the carbon budget. The amount of financial
support should be linked to the amount of avoided
GHG-emissions.
(6) Research with a clear focus on reducing GHGemissions in the built environment should beprioritized and provided with sufficient human,material and financial resources. Funding shouldbe geared to the level of potential savings inenergy and GHG-emissions compared to othersectors.
(7) We, the signatories, commit ourselves to advancethe development of fundamental principles andtools for determining, assessing and influencing
resource utilization and environmental pollution
caused by buildings and their supporting
infrastructures. The same applies to thedevelopment and testing of products, technologies
and construction methods.
(8) A core task for the built environment researchcommunity is to advise policy makers,
practitioners and civil society on strategies todecarbonise the built environment. We also havea responsibility to engage with international andlocal climate change initiatives.
(9) We call upon all those involved with thegovernance and provision of higher education andtraining to change the curriculum before 2025 toensure that decarbonization and the SDGs arecentral components. This includes the teaching offundamental principles, systems-thinking
orientation, practice-oriented skills and solutions
for net-zero GHG-emission buildings.
(10) As a matter of urgency, all those organisations
responsible for built environment professions andvocations are called on to provide mandatory
training to their existing members for ensuring
they have the knowledge and skills to create,
operate and maintain a net-zero GHG-emission
built environment.

(4) Public buildings or those given public resourcesmust be exemplary in delivering ambitious
reductions in GHG-emissions. They have asignificant role in facilitating the transformation ofInfo Section:
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CIB Newsletter(11) We call upon the building products, construction,
infrastructure (i.e. civil engineering), housing andreal estate industries to make their own
contribution to radically reduce GHG-emissions intheir respective areas of work and responsibility,including their supply chains.

Information
More information about the SBE19 Graz Conference isto be found here.
SBE Conference Series(12) We call upon the finance and insurance industries
to grant favourable conditions to buildings andinterventions to buildings with an above-averagecontribution to sustainable development andclimate protection. We welcome the approach of“green finance” with a taxonomy to assess
construction and infrastructure projects in the EU.

This Conference is part of the SBE Series of 20182020. More information of this series is to be foundhere.

(13) We invite the organizers and participants of theWSBE20 to transfer this initiative to the globalcommunity. We will report to this worldconference on the results and progress in our
research and other activities.
-------------------------------------------------¹IPCC (2018) Global Warming of 1.5 C (Special Report).
https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/²In addition to the operational part, 11% of the global
building related GHG-emissions are caused by theconstruction industry.
³e.g. reduced environmental impacts, resilience, innovation,
health and wellbeing, reduced inequalities, responsible
consumption and production, and affordable housing.
⁴This can be expressed as the carbon footprint of a building
based on a life cycle assessment (LCA).

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