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Goals, Purpose and Politics; GBC as a Global Forum.

An interview with David Gottfried:

David Gottfried is the founder of World Green Building Council, US Green Building Council, and board member of World Green Building Council. I asked him a few questions to find out how he sees the role and the future of an expanding Green Building Council movement.

Having realised how much the building industry can contribute to reducing global emissions I asked Gottfried what he thought of the possibility of the impact of energy efficient buildings. I told him that Sue Roaf (author and academic at Oxford Brookes University, UK), put it to me that if all buildings achieved their optimum energy efficiency then the savings in carbon emissions, would be enough to reduce them to 1990 levels. Therefore how can the GBC movement achieve such a thing; is it possible within existing systems?  He replied, ‘I'm not sure of the exact levels, but I know that we can treat our buildings as power plants of the future with much of the new energy generation coming from conservation and efficiency. I believe we can achieve a minimum of a 1/3 reduction in energy use and 50% or more in older buildings. There is much more efficient HVAC systems, thermal windows, efficient lights and controls etc. Many newly designed leadership buildings are now striving to become climate neutral.’

Gottfried along with many other activists can see that household energy production can be done at home. But can the government be persuaded to take this thinking onto the statute book? I asked Gottfried if he thought this was the remit of the GBC movement. He says, ‘We are making great progress through introduction of building rating systems which voluntarily encourage energy efficiency. We are also instrumental in advancing building codes - one approach is regulatory and the other is voluntary leadership based. There are many tools in the transformation agenda. Incentives are also important, such as tax credits. The World Green Building Council advocates and supports creation of country green building councils. We also encourage development of building rating systems as one of the most important programs that a GBC can undertake. Our members have created LEED (US), Green Star (Australia) and CASBEE (Japan).’

I then asked him if he thought voluntary codes are enough to bring about big change? ‘Codes are not voluntary. The rating systems are mostly voluntary, unless they are mandated by government. This occurs sometimes when a development is seeking governmental approvals or variances. As mentioned earlier, I believe that there are many necessary and useful tools in the transformation toolkit. This includes education and training, rating systems, software tools, codes and standards, incentives, research, demonstration and marketing and communications. It is not just one thing, we need many facets and modalities.’

Given the nature of an expanding World GBC, the next question I put to Gottfried was about how the organisation was going to cope with dozens of countries taking part. How does the World GBC compare with other global forums such as the UN, WHO and WTO? Is it even comparable to these organisations? He replied, ‘The World GBC mission to become the UN for country green building Councils. We believe the GBC organisational model is an extremely effective proven public/private transformation initiative. The World GBC is open and collaborative as a principle… The basis of a GBC is that it is a coalition of all sectors of the property industry and this includes environmental organisations and manufacturers, as well as another ten sectors including design professionals etc. The key is for organisations to not compete with each other, but to work together in a complimentary framework. The world does not have time or patience for politics.’

I then asked what his personal top priority was as the founder of the World GBC? He said ‘…I serve on the board and I am the only non-country member of the organisation. My role as founder is to help guide us forward and keep the vision of a GBC. I am also an ambassador of the history, benefit and methods for creating a GBC. Most recently I've been working on helping to create a GBC in China. They will build the most of any country in the world, estimated at 40 billion square meters over the next 30 years. I can think of nothing more important than greening this construction and ongoing eruptions.’ Given his hands on approach to the Chinese GBC, I asked what if anything he was going to do for the UK GBC set to launch soon. He said he has not been actively involved in the development of the UKGBC, and went on to say that it would be fun to celebrate the launch.

Given the role the GBC movement has taken so far is the GBC merely a lobby group? Gottfried didn’t think so. He says, ‘Most are closer to charitable organisations or a membership group to encourage green building. However, part of a GBC mandate is education, training and sharing of best practice information, standards, codes and rating systems. Government and industry need to be made aware of this knowledge and the applicability to their real estate portfolios.’ Lobbying the government is a part of the remit, but it seems the central role is to manage to the development of new sustainable buildings.

David Gottfried is certainly a great asset to the movement. He sees China as his greatest challenge and possibly his greatest achievement, if he can help deliver a widely used Chinese rating for green buildings. The UK on the other hand, is perhaps capable to looking after itself, given its inspirational start in the BREEAM rating system, which gave rise to other rating systems across the world.

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