Just over one year ago I had a chance to speak with Kevin Hydes, the previous Chair of the World Green Building Council. The WorldGBC had at the time, recently based its operation out of Toronto. Hydes spoke of an exciting momentum, and an ambitious agenda on the part of the WorldGBC to greatly expand the organization, and the practices of green building around the globe. He had referred to their 100/100/100 plan that looked to:

• establish 100 green building councils around the world
  
• assist the 100 million people who work in the construction industry learn about the importance of building green
  
• secure 100 million dollars to execute their programs and bring about this massive shift.

More recently I had a chance to speak with Andrew Bowerbank, the Executive Director of the WorldGBC. Many good things have happened over the past year. The focus, however, has shifted to some degree. They are no longer explicitly aiming to meet the 100/100/100 goals. Rather than try to focus on quantity, and primarily aiming to drive up the number of green building councils around the world, there is now a much greater focus on quality and ensuring that the councils already established and those to be created are operating at the highest levels and producing results. As Bowerbank says, it is all about “putting a strong foundation in place.”

He goes on to say that the green building agenda cuts across three areas. One of these is academia. Another is government, which includes action through the United Nations. Industry is the third major player, one that represents $4.2 trillion in development per year. Bowerbank is pleased to report that already 50% of the construction sector worldwide is working with Green Building Councils. These 10,000 members are not simply individuals, but include corporations, and firms, representing many stakeholders within each.

To help establish highly functioning, quality councils, the WorldGBC is:

• continuing to develop rating tools for judging what is green
  
• working to ensure stakeholders are not greenwashing
  
• providing education

The WorldGBC is now placing a greater emphasis upon viewing their operations through a triple bottom line lens (i.e. balancing economic, environmental and social priorities). They are working on new metrics for success and have attained observer status at institutions like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The WorldGBC is currently working on a strategy that will enable a more definitive, streamlined process for new Member Council development. The new process will make use of a more robust on-line service available through the new WorldGBC website. They are targeting a launch of the new process to take place in the first quarter of 2009. Bowerbank says that once the new process for Council development has been finalized and approved by the Board of Directors, the leaders in the 40 new countries they are currently working with will have better access to resources in their efforts to establish new councils.

The economic crisis has impacted virtually every sector of the economy. That said, Bowerbank is cautiously optimistic about the prospects for the green building sector. According to Bowerbank, once you streamline the process it is actually cheaper to build green. While a major challenge is to get over what he refers to as the “education hump,” he goes on to say that half of the marketplace already is beginning to understand green, and is adopting green practices “fairly rapidly.”

Bowerbank believes that the green building sector is actually one of the elements that will provide us with an answer to our current economic crisis. He is not the only one, apparently. He says that Canaccord Adams (a global capital marketing group doing investment research) stated in their November issue that industry is realizing that their green portfolios are going to be one of the keys that help to pull them through this crisis.

We happened to speak immediately after the American election. Bowerbank believes the electoral outcome can only be a good thing for the green building sector. The WorldGBC has a real opportunity to get through to the new president elect, who Bowerbank states, has a true understanding of climate change and the importance of combining economic and environmental goals.

While the WorldGBC may no longer be striving to achieve their 100/100/100 goals, they seem to be making real headway in building a solid foundation upon which green building just might flourish in the years to come.

This article is a follow-up on Jordy's previous article on the WorldGBC, reprinted last month in our second anniversary retrospective.

A Solid Green Foundation
by Jordy Gold