Decarbonizing Real Estate: the Low Carbon Building Initiative (LCBI) announces first results of its pilot phase with 15 pioneering projects across Europe

Full press release here

Paris, September 20th

The Low Carbon Building Initiative (LCBI), a non-profit aiming at reducing carbon emissions in the real estate industry, is thrilled to announce, at the SIBCA Conference, the culmination of its pilot phase with experimentation on 15 projects across Europe: in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands. This exciting milestone marks a significant step towards harmonizing carbon measurement practices in the European real estate sector. Such harmonization would provide a powerful signal to the market and help to unlock further private sector investment in low carbon buildings and bring down CO2 emissions.

A Unified Approach to Measure Building Carbon Footprint

The real estate industry is responsible for 39% of European CO2 emissions. Calculating carbon emissions at each stage of a building’s life cycle – construction, operations, and end of life –, with a harmonized methodology across Europe, is necessary to quantify and compare real carbon footprints of buildings. Today, such a common language does not exist.

To address this pressing issue, the Low Carbon Building Initiative (LCBI) assembled a consortium of technical experts, alongside major real estate stakeholders. Together, they have worked since 2022 to create a common European carbon accounting language. This methodology includes specific carbon emissions targets – basis to obtain LCBI label – providing a clear path towards achieving lower carbon
emissions.

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