London, United Kingdom: The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has issued a press release stating that three major global businesses have backed its ambitious long-term target to ensure that all buildings – new and existing – are net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as official sponsors of the ‘Advancing Net Zero’ project.

According to the press release, engineering firm, Integral Group; international property and infrastructure group, Lendlease; and product manufacturer, the ROCKWOOL Group, have all joined the project.

The press release said that a new funder, Blackstone Ranch Institute, which supports high-impact environmental projects that seek change on an international scale, has lent support. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund and ClimateWorks Foundation, it added, have also previously supported the project.

Elaborating further, the council said that the project was launched in late June 2016, and calls upon national Green Building Councils, which own or operate certification schemes, to introduce or adopt a net-zero certification scheme for their market, with a pilot version ready for January 2018. The council explained that the goal to achieve net-zero emissions global building stock by 2050 is the means by which the building sector will help to deliver on the Paris Agreement, forged at COP 21 in December 2015. It was in Paris that WorldGBC, its 74 Green Building Councils and their 32,000 member companies committed to reduce CO₂ emissions from buildings by 84 gigatonnes by 2050 – what the International Energy Agency said is needed from the sector to keep global temperature rises to within 2 degrees Celsius.

“Our Advancing Net Zero project continues to grow and expand its international impact day by day,” said Terri Wills, CEO of the World Green Building Council. “The support of major companies such as Integral Group, Lendlease and ROCKWOOL demonstrates the huge appetite amongst businesses to design, build, invest in and operate net zero buildings. We’ve started to pave the path towards net zero and there’s no turning back until every building gets there before 2050.”

As of today, WorldGBC said that 11 Green Building Councils are participating in the project, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Additional Green Building Councils in the WorldGBC network, including those who do not operate certification programmes in their market, will be participating in other aspects of the global project throughout 2017, it added.