Challenges and Outlook for the 21thCentury ICLEI World Congress 2009, F2 Building and Construction, 17 June 2009 Philipp Tepper, Project Officer, ICLEI European Secretariat

1. Sustainable Buildings and
Construction
Challenges and Outlook for the 21th Century
ICLEI World Congress 2009, F2 Building and Construction,
17 June 2009
Philipp Tepper, Project Officer, ICLEI European Secretariat

2. Environmental & Social Impacts
Energy and climate change
 40% of the final energy consumption in the European
Union is from the building sector, accounting for 50% of
the CO2 emissions
 The buildings sector is using significant amounts of
natural resources such as extractive minerals, water and
space (flora & fauna)
Working conditions and migration
 Health and Safety of the workers
 Child labour in extractive industries
 Working migration and social exclusion

3. Systemic components
Radical action means integrated =
systemic solutions to net plus buildings

4. Communicating clear demand
Construction of new / renovation of [insert building type],
 achieving an energy performance reaching
to at least passive house standard,
 using sustainable construction materials,
 sustainable water and waste water
management aspects and
 ambitious healthy living conditions.

5. Challenges and solutions today
“For millenia we have lived in
passive buildings” Dr Rajat Gupta
Think passive again and take
sustainability criteria into account in the
whole construction chain
DESIGN CONSTRUCTION OPERATION END OF LIFE

6. Buildings for
the 21th Century
are:
 Designed, build and renovated in a way that they are rather
productive than consuming – leading to Net Plus Energy buildings
 Contributing to cosmopolitan cities and towns, both enabling social
inclusion as well as a comfortable living environment
 Smart, meaning that they balance the positive impacts of e.g.
advanced insulation materials against the other created
environmental and social impacts such as waste generation
 Build based on improved and consequently applied Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA)
 Contributing to raise awareness and encourage sustainable action
by displaying and marketing the positive impacts to the
environment and society

7. Key Actions  Use sustainable
of Local procurement as radical
action to drive innovation in
Governments the building sector
 To do so engage with the
market – corporations, SMEs
and entrepreneurs – as early
as possible
 Form new coalitions with the
finance sector
 Radically change municipal
budgeting to take into
account whole lifecycle costs
 Apply strict environmental
and social responsible urban
planning

8. Quand tu veux construire un bateau, ne commence pas
par rassembler du bois, couper des planches et
distribuer du travail, mais reveille au sein des hommes le
desir de la mer grande et large.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Thank you!
Philipp Tepper
Project Officer, ICLEI European Secretariat
philipp.tepper(at)iclei.org