“North American Passive House Network Conference and Expo 2017”

Spoken via video link.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to join you today on the shores of San Francisco Bay all the way from those of Lake Geneva. I would like to thank the North American Passive House Network for the opportunity to speak about sustainable construction. To discuss its vital role in tackling today’s greatest challenge.

Why construction? For one, buildings – both grand and humble – embody some of our greatest accomplishments. Throughout time, they have dared us to innovate. Their construction has pushed our creativity to the limit. In the process, buildings have come to shape our lives and the way we live them. This nexus of creativity and impact is why construction must play a central role in tackling the greatest challenge of our time: sustainable development. How we build a safer, fairer world without bringing our planet to the brink. To elaborate on this thought, I want to share with you today three visions. One, of a new kind of buildings. Two, of a new way to view progress. Three, of a new, global society. These three visions are linked to your work in the passive housing community and to the efforts of the United Nations.

First, the new world of buildings. From time immemorial, the environment has shaped construction. Think of the canal houses of Venice, the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde or the “yurt” of Central Asia. What is less apparent, however, is that buildings have also shaped the environment. Archaeology indicates that urban sprawl and overconsumption likely contributed to the downfall of ancient megacities like Angor Wat and Tikal. Their ruin, a warning of the dangers of unsustainable development. Today, we may be traveling down the same path. Buildings consume 70 per cent of the electricity produced in the United States and nearly 40 per cent of its carbon emissions. Reducing the environmental footprint of buildings is particularly vital in developing countries, where an unprecedented construction boom is underway. If half of humanity lives in cities today, some 70 per cent will do so by 2050. About 95 per cent of that growth will take place in developing countries. UN Habitat estimates that 70 per cent of the urban infrastructure that will exist in 2050 has not yet been built. If we fail to build it in a sustainable fashion, future generations will suffer the consequences. In light of this challenge, we need to reimagine buildings. What they do. How they are made. How they are structured. That change is not an option; it is an imperative. The buildings of tomorrow must be part of a wider effort to free ourselves from carbon emissions. That means reducing energy demand to a level that can be met by clean energy. Translating this vision into action requires new building standards. Your community has, of course, long recognized this reality and worked to raise awareness of a solution: passive house design.

Second, let me turn to a new vision of progress. Since the dawn of industrialization, we have viewed progress through growth, productivity or profitability. These measures have their worth, but they fail to account for the stranglehold of carbon emissions or for the plight of those left behind. Today, we can no longer ignore these externalities. The social and environmental costs are simply too high. Our view of progress must have sustainability at its heart. This is the vision of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Adopted by 193 UN Member States in 2015 with the engagement of civil society, business and academia, the Global Goals address everything from poverty to the rule of law. They recognize that there is no progress on one front without action on another. That we cannot have economic stability if we fail to address poverty, gender equality or clean energy, to name just three. The lessons of decades of development work show that focusing solely on economic growth won’t get us there. Instead, we need a balanced approach. One that gives equal weight to the 5 Ps: People, Planet, Profit, Peace and Partnership.

Bringing this balanced approach to fruition depends on a third vision, that of a new global society. Simply put, sustainable development depends on everyone, everywhere taking responsibility. Why? Because the scope of the problems and the scale of the response needed are too vast to be left to traditional actors on development. Success will depend on new partnerships between traditional development actors, the private sector and civil society. It will depend on networks that can foster technologies, raise awareness and facilitate collaboration. The North American Passive House Network is a prime example of this kind of innovative partnerships.

These three visions – buildings, progress and global society – can become a reality. But this will depend on our ability to communicate the need for change and to implement it. In that context, the Framework Guidelines for Energy Efficiency Standards in Buildings forged last month by the high-performance building community and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe are exemplary. Coupled with the collaborative plan to implement it, the Guidelines are a model for how the world can reach the Global Goals. The Guidelines facilitate collaboration across all major sectors linked to construction. If they are premised on voluntary adoption, they highlight the long- and short-term benefits of doing so. They emphasize the links between progress, health and growth to achieve sustainability.

Through measures like the Guidelines we will not only create sustainable buildings, but learn to live sustainably. Speaking of the Palace of Westminster, Winston Churchill once said that “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us”. As we learn to build ever more sustainable buildings, we will in the process build ever more environmentally-conscious communities. You, the high-performance building community, the UNECE and your fellow collaborators – Penn State and others in the research consortium as well as the Centers of Excellence in New York, Wexford, Vancouver, and elsewhere – are valued partners in this effort. Your experience under real-life conditions, will forge the partnerships and innovations needed to build the societies of tomorrow.

In closing, allow me to discuss the commitment of the United Nations, especially of UN Geneva, to this effort. As you know, the UN System is dedicated to supporting Member States and their partners in the pursuit of a sustainable future. Here in Geneva, we have established the SDG Lab to facilitate the sharing of information and best practices, to help avoid repetition and overlap, to map initiatives in Geneva and beyond, as well as to facilitate conversations and partnerships between stakeholders worldwide. As a major operational hub on the Global Goals, Geneva is uniquely suited to host this initiative. This is because the region is home to the concentration of actors needed for sustainable development: over 100 international organizations, more than 400 NGOs, a vibrant substantive private sector, respected academic institutions and representatives of over 175 Member States. Geneva, for example, hosts the International Standards Organization, whose technical committees are responsible for more than 100 building standards in use worldwide. But Geneva is more than the sum of its parts. It’s also home to a cooperative mentality. It is a veritable laboratory, where the proximity of actors fosters collaboration, deep institutional knowledge is shared and parties are willing to experiment, to sometimes fail, but ultimately to make breakthroughs. Partnerships that are forged here in Geneva have an impact on the ground. Take, for example, the United 4 Smart Sustainability Cities. An initiative of two Geneva-based actors – UNECE and the International Telecommunications Union – it is helping cities use IT tools to transition to become smart sustainable hubs.

Our pledge – my pledge – is to share this “Spirit of Geneva” with you and your partners. To work with you and the UNECE as you move ahead with implementation, to facilitate impactful partnerships, information sharing, network building and all that it will take to realize your vision – our joint vision – of a new world of buildings and a truly sustainable global humanity.

I look forward to discussing these issues further in the question and answer session.

Thank you very much.