While all stages of a building’s life-cycle (including construction and demolition) produce GHG emissions, a building’s operational phase accounts for 80-90% of emissions resulting from energy use mainly for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and appliances. Therefore, this is the stage of the building’s life-cycle that is the focus of the UNEP-SBCI’s CCM.

The CCM was launched at COP-15 in Copenhagen in 2010 and is a protocol for measuring energy use and reporting GHG emissions from the operational phase of buildings. It will establish baselines, enable measurable, reportable and verifiable (MRV) reporting; and, help unlock the potential for significant reduction in GHG emissions in the building sector.

The CCM is being developed to support and inform:

• Local, regional, national and international governments’ policies and initiatives,
  
• Emission reduction mechanisms including NAMAs, flexible financing mechanisms and carbon crediting,
  
• Industry initiatives,
  
• Building portfolio managers and owners, and
• National building rating schemes.

Pilot Testing

During 2010, the 1st pilot phase of the CCM was completed. This phase was focused onaddressing city-level, portfolio-level, and building-level emissions. Nine organizations participated in this phase, encompassing 49 individual buildings and 5 larger stocks.

Currently, the 2nd pilot phase is underway. Twice as many organizations are participating in the 2nd pilot phase including 150 buildings and 7 larger stocks. This phase is concentrating on refining the tool before it is released to the international community. Special attention is being given to developing a “building stock” approach which accounts for cities, campuses or small communities while still providing an opportunity for portfolio holders to evaluate the performance of their building stock and verify results through representative sampling.

The actual reporting is done in weight of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO2e) emitted per square meter per year = kgCO2e/m2/yr (by building type & by climate region).

2nd Phase Pilot Participants

1st Phase Pilot Participants