World Green Building Council: EU Policy Whole Life Carbon Roadmap 21 SECTION 2: DEFINING AN EU POLICY ROADMAP FOR WHOLE LIFE CARBON INTRODUCTION Achieving the vision outlined in Section 1 requires major adjustments to buildings’ design, construction, operation and end- of-life phase. No single policy can implement this shift: systemic change is needed, involving all actors in the building sector. Our recommendations are outlined in this section. Overview of the potential policy routes Various mechanisms can be applied to achieve a decarbonised built environment. The recommendations in this report have been broken down into four cross-cutting and complementary policy routes. 1. Building regulations Updating building regulations to tackle the full environmental impact of the built environment is a crucial way to mandate low-carbon construction for new builds and renovation. These regulations dictate the standards to which buildings must be constructed and renovated across Member States as well as what data must be reported. They should respect the ‘energy efficiency first’ principle to address the built environment’s operational impact and support a move towards addressing WLC. A regulated move to a WLC approach would transform how all building value- chain actors plan and deliver projects. 2. Waste and circularity As the building sector accounts for an estimated third of Europe’s total waste footprint, EU policy must also go further to tackle the waste generated during the construction and end-of-life phases of a building. Using regulation to mandate a shift towards a construction ecosystem that embraces circularity will help decarbonise the entire building life cycle through increased resource efficiency. 3. Sustainable procurement Sustainability decisions regarding many building projects rest with public procurers. EU policy should enable these entities to be the sector vanguard, leading the way in adopting the tools and methods needed to decarbonise the built environment. The updated Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) highlights the opportunity public procurers have to use Level(s) metrics to assess WLC. This is the first step in driving market demand for these new solutions, but more work is needed. Designers, construction companies and manufacturers that have already embraced a WLC approach would stand to benefit. 4. Sustainable finance As financial assets, buildings are at serious risk from climate change, both physically and from the potential economic impact of changing regulations. Introducing financial mechanisms that support sustainability would provide a powerful tool for improving the environmental and economic sustainability of Europe’s building stock. Importance of an integrated approach As the EU policy framework evolves to consider circularity and WLC, it must recognise the synergies and interdependencies between the policy routes as outlined in this Roadmap. Only by looking at the built environment in a truly systemic way can we address its full impact. Integrated policymaking and implementation will require the engagement of a broad range of stakeholders, including subnational governments, businesses, NGOs, research institutions and representatives from community groups. Furthermore, current policies that impact buildings are often targeted at different points in the building life cycle and overlook interdependencies, as shown in Table 3.
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