TUESDAY, JUNE 18, 2019
The Dow Chemical Company and the United States Green Building Council recently announced via press release that they are co-initiating an inaugural Carbon Challenge Award.
The challenge plans to address how reductions can be made in the operational carbon footprint of buildings in relation to increases in built environment growth, specifically in North Asia.
Creating the Challenge
Dow and USGBC wish to recognize various commercial structures that have reduced its carbon emissions and improved energy efficiency.
According to USGBC, building sectors and construction operations account for roughly 40% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions when upstream power generation is included. Due to these numbers, the energy intensity per square meter of the global building sector needs to decrease by an average of 30% by 2030 in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s ambitions for global climates.
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The Dow Chemical Company and the United States Green Building Council recently announced via press release that the companies would be co-initiating an inaugural Carbon Challenge Award. |
“Solutions to enable a low-carbon future exist today and Dow has an extensive portfolio that can help building owners make sustainable decisions about their buildings’ embedded and operational carbon footprint,” said Jean-Paul Hautekeer, global marketing director high performance building at Dow.
“Through this Carbon Challenge, we aim to share Dow’s experience and encourage building owners to make decisions for better built environments.”
The joint initiative not only hopes to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment sector—which accounts for 36% of final energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions globally—but to also provide winners of the Carbon Challenge with the opportunity to present their ideas with the Official Carbon Partnership between Dow and the International Olympic Committee.
“As urbanization puts demand on the building industry, improving the planning and execution processes of construction and development becomes a vital piece of the sustainability puzzle,” said Nicoletta Piccolrovazzi, Dow’s circular economy market director and global technology and sustainability director for Olympic and Sports Solutions.
“With these partnerships, it is our goal to leverage one another’s relationships and distinctive expertise to take this challenge head-on and help the industry utilize the most sustainable solutions available.”
The Dow-IOC Official Carbon Partnership was established in September 2017 and works to leverage the Olympic brand to engage and implement a series of carbon mitigation projects around the world. All carbon reductions under the partnership are then verified by third-party experts.
Entering the Carbon Challenge
To be eligible for the Carbon Challenge Award, the structure must be an office building or shopping center that is 20,000 square meters or larger, and must be located in Japan, South Korea and Greater China, which includes mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.
Once entered, structures will be evaluated under two scopes:
“USGBC’s deep knowledge of green building and sustainability practices and experience with third-party verification systems, along with Dow’s demonstrated technical expertise, creates the perfect foundation for catalyzing energy improvements in buildings worldwide,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of USGBC.
“We are thrilled to continue to partner with Dow to build on that foundation through our first ever Carbon Challenge, which will recognize building owners and managers that are making carbon-savings an integral part of their projects.”
All data will be verified by USGBC’s Arc system.
Registration will close on Aug. 31. Winners are slated to be announced at Greenbuild China 2019.
Tagged categories: Awards and honors; Carbon dioxide; Carbon footprint; Commercial Buildings; Contests; DowDuPont; Energy efficiency; Good Technical Practice; PaintSquare App - Commercial; United States Green Building Council (USGBC)
