The World Green Building Council launched its Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment on Wednesday with three companies agreeing to eliminate carbon emissions in their building portfolios by 2030.

At the Canada Green Building Councils annual conference – Building Lasting Change 2018  – held in Toronto this week, Integral Group, Majid Al Futtaim, a shopping mall, retail and leisure firm in the Middle East and North Africa, and IoT lighting firm were the first three firms to sign the commitment.

Kevin Hydes, CEO of the Integral Group at CaGBC conference showing off signed committment to zero carbon emissions.

The commitment is another initiative by the World GBC to advance the building sector toward net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“This new Commitment is a huge step forward on the path towards net zero. Our vision is ambitious, but we know that the building industry has the knowledge, the technologies and the capability to deliver,” WorldGBC’s chief executive Terri Wills said.

“The Commitment will help to create unprecedented demand for green design and construction, stimulating the market to deliver net-zero carbon buildings at scale.”

Representatives from each of the first businesses to sign the commitment participated in a signing ceremony at one of the conference sessions. 

Kevin Hydes, the CEO and founder of Integral Group, signed on behalf of his firm. Hydes is a former chair of the USGBC, World GBC and was a founding director of the Canada GBC. Hyde was previously CEO of Keen Engineering and a vice-president at Stantec.

Integral Group is an interactive global network of design professionals collaborating under a single deep green engineering umbrella. It provides a full range of building system design and energy analysis services, with a staff widely regarded as innovative leaders in their fields.

It is located in 15 offices across North America, the United Kingdom and Australia.