RICS keeps working to reduce the impact of construction on the climate

RICS keeps working to reduce the impact of construction on the climate
January 25, 2017 Rolf Bastiaanssen

RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) continues to push for the built environment to lead in meeting its global climate change commitments.

Last November, RICS joined the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) in Marrakech to consolidate and coordinate the pursuit of the commitments agreed at COP21 with the main purpose of keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, fulfilling its role as a founding partner of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC). This initiative was launched in COP21 and gathers over 90 countries and non-state organisations aiming to work towards a low carbon and resilient building sector. As part of the GABC initiative, RICS and the International Energy Agency (IEA) are co-leading a working group to evaluate the potential effect of improving systematic data collection, consistency and accountability to drive better policymaking and higher levels of energy efficiency investments in buildings. To support this effort, RICS is encouraging built environment professionals, policymakers, financing institutions, investors, building owners and tenants to participate in GABC’s Data Capture and Management Survey, which aims to provide insights into how data is currently being captured and managed.

In addition, RICS is also working on international standards that can provide comparable data on property size through both IPMS (International Property Measurement Standards) and ICMS (International Construction Measurement Standards) to calculate aspects of construction costs.