According to the Polish Green Building Council the usable area of buildings covered by green certificates, which confirm their environmental friendliness, exceeded 23 million sqm last year and only in the previous 12 months increased by 35 percent. At that time there were 1,100 such buildings in Poland, but their number is rapidly increasing. This reflects the direction of sustainable development and environmental neutrality, in which the entire real estate and construction industry is heading. It is enforced by both business and legislative pressure – including, among others, the obligations imposed by the EU on companies to report ESG factors.

"Real estate companies are already implementing sustainability to some extent today. Many of them are even going a bit ahead of the curve, taking actions that go beyond legal obligations or the mere aspect of non-financial reporting, and begin to transparently show how their business works. However, given the climate goals and at the same time economic ambitions, this is not yet the case. We are certainly facing a major transformation towards low- and zero-carbon," Jerzy Wójcik, CEO of JW+A Green Building Experts, predicted.

Construction is a sector that plays a key role in the decarbonisation of the economy. Statistics show that in 2020, buildings were responsible for 37 percent of global CO2 emissions and 36 percent of global energy demand, while about 2/3 of the energy consumed by the construction sector still comes from fossil fuels. In addition, the industry is responsible for producing 1/3 of the waste and consuming about 3 billion metric tonnes of raw materials. This is partly due to the fact that in Europe alone, almost 75% of buildings show low energy efficiency, as indicated by the report prepared by ThinkCo in cooperation with JW+A, Skanska, Panattoni and Torus.

(Newseria)