A zero emissions building is not as easy to define as you may think. Should it include embodied carbon, for example, should efficiency and clean energy generation be specific parts of the definition or should it simply refer to the level of emissions, whatever the approach? These are the kinds of questions being discussed in the White House today after President Biden announced his intentions to set a common definition of a zero emissions building for the entire US market. “Given the conversations taking place around net-zero emissions, what the White House has realized is that there’s a need to have a common definition that the market can align with,” Liz Beardsley, senior policy counsel at the US Green Building Council said. “Investors, financiers, real estate companies and facilities managers would then have that common definition to understand where a given portfolio is with zero-emission buildings.” The responsibility of defining a zero emissions building will […]