WorldGBC launches Circularity Accelerator — a groundbreaking global programme to advance circular and regenerative built environments

The built environment is accelerating the climate and biodiversity crisis

The United Nations (UN) reported we have a 50% chance of exceeding 1.5°C of global heating in the next five years. Between the UN Climate Summit of COP21 in Paris and COP26 in Glasgow, the global economy consumed 70% more raw materials than the Earth can safely replenish. [1]

The planet thrives through circular, natural and regenerative systems, which are being damaged by the the impacts of the built environment:

• The built environment is responsible for 37% of global energy-related carbon emissions, and the construction sector accounts for around 40% of global resource demand. By 2050, two thirds of the global population will live in cities, consuming 75% of the world’s natural resources, producing 50% of global waste and over 60% of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. [2]
• Over one-third of the materials used worldwide are for buildings, but less than 9% of global materials consumed are circular, i.e. kept in productive cycles of use. [1]
• The impact of this resource use — associated GHG emissions and pollution and plunging biodiversity — accelerates climate change and the decline of life-sustaining ecosystem services such as the maintenance of clean water and productive soils.