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About the World Green Building Council The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) is the largest and most influential local-regional-global action network, leading the transformation to sustainable and decarbonised built environments for everyone, everywhere. This work was kindly supported by: Global Programme Partners Report Partners Together, with 75+ Green Building Councils (GBCs) and industry partners from all around the world, we are driving systemic changes to: • Address whole life carbon emissions of existing and new buildings • Enable resilient, healthy, equitable and inclusive places • Secure regenerative, resource efficient and waste-free built environments We work with businesses, organisations and governments to deliver on the ambitions of the Paris Agreement and UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs). “To ensure a just and equitable transition to a decarbonised and resilient future, it is critical that we protect and enhance the lives of people at all stages of the building and construction life cycle. We need to ensure that no one is left behind. WorldGBC’s innovative publication provides a unique framework for the key stakeholders across the value chain to consider how the built environment impacts people, place and planet. It reminds us that we must ensure social impact becomes a requirement, not a consideration, across the global building and construction sector.” Her Excellency Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for COP28 2 Social Impact across the Built Environment
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Introduction People are the very foundation of our cities and communities. The purpose of our homes, buildings and places is to provide shelter and space for people throughout their lives. As a result, the built environment plays a pivotal role in shaping and influencing social dynamics. The impacts of the built environment as an industry, however, go far beyond the users of individual assets – the sector impacts upon human rights at every stage of the building and construction life cycle. This position paper presents a new way of considering social impacts across the built environment. By thinking in terms of scopes (a concept familiar to many sustainability professionals through mirroring the well-known language of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol), this model can help inform a more complete understanding of the social responsibilities of the sector. The purpose is to: • Highlight the diversity of social impact issues across the built environment. • Tackle the lack of alignment of social considerations by creating a centralised scope of action across the building and construction industry. • Emphasise the first steps of action for all stakeholders across the built environment. As the Buildings Breakthrough calls for ‘near-zero emission and resilient buildings as the new normal by 2030’, 1 it is essential that we catalyse this vision in a just and equitable manner for all people influenced by transitions in the sector. This work is written for the entire built environment supply chain and stakeholders – including developers, investors, designers, owners, construction sector, building users, infrastructure and public realm, and workers’ organisations and businesses. We also encourage consideration of these scopes of social issues from policy makers, governments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO). We hope that this paper will help to lay the foundation for attention and action on built environment social impacts through the development of this high-level framework. The aim is to create momentum for change as we tackle the climate and nature crises alongside sustainable development for all. The impacts of the built environment as an industry go far beyond the users of individual assets 3 Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
