UNEP SBCI Madrid Round Tables on Sustainable Buildings & Construction

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Hosted by the City of Madrid December 2-4, the round-tables were very successful in moving our work programme forward. SBCI would like to thank SBCI member the City of Madrid for their excellent coordination and support for the event. A full meeting report can be downloaded on this website. The major outcomes from the meeting were:

1. Launch of the report: The Kyoto Protocol, The Cleaner Development Mechanism and the Building & Construction Sector
   Launched both in Madrid at our SBCI round-table meetings and at the Poznan Conference of the Parties 'COP' 14, the report is already receiving a lot of media attention. News coverage of the release of the SBCI CDM & Buildings report at last count found about 1900 references, linking to about 120 publications and news services from all continents, almost all of them quoting more or less directly from the UNEP press release and/or the press conference & side event in Poznan. You will be able to download the report from our web-site very soon.
2. New COP 15 Action Plan for the Climate Change Think Tank
   The re-convened Climate Change Think Tank is now working on the ambitious and essential task of reaching out to all of the country delegations currently negotiating the post-Kyoto climate agreement.  No country will meet its existing commitments, let alone new ones without supporting the building sector. As we know sustainable buildings are fundamental to dealing with climate change and contributing to sustainable development. The next UNEP SBCI meetings hosted by US GBC in Washington DC 15-17 April 09 will be a crucial chance for the Building Sector to speak with one voice on the need for special strategies to be included in the next global greenhouse emissions framework.
3. Review of Key reports on Benchmarking and workshop on key performance indicators for sustainable buildings as contributions to the SBC Index
   The UNEPs SBCI Benchmarking Think Tank process has produced its first draft reports - knowledge-base thanks to BRE, CSTB and UNEP FI and case-studies thanks to Carnegie Mellon University (we asked for a minimum of 25 and received more than 100!). The outcomes of the Delphi study by CSIRO with the first outline of the SBC Index framework will be out for comment at the end of January.
4. Policy Think Tank to be launched
   Review of proposals for, and agreement on the formation of a policy working think tank to oversee the implementation of the policy quick-scan tool and provide strategic advice on sustainable building policies for developing countries has been reached. We hope to build a strong link to the Marrakech Task Force on SBC and members such as the World Green Building Council and CiDB through this think tank;
5. Policy ‘Quick-Scan Tool’ for GHG emission reductions in the building sector is in final phases and has been launched on-line for comments. This will be a core component of the 'SPoD' projects next year.
6. Cities & Sustainable Building round-table convened jointly with the Urban Environment Unit and UN HABITAT represented by Chief of HABITAT Shelter branch Mohamed El Sioufi. The meeting drew approximately 100 participants from cities and the building sector in Spain and internationally. We are working on the meeting outcomes now as a working paper on a possible cities and sustainable buildings focus area.