With the LEED standard set to grow more widely recognized in the future, companies can take cues from international organizations for reuse. The recent COP21 conference in Paris has brought more attention to the hazards of climate change and the need to reduce emissions over the coming years. A study presented at the conference shows that carbon dioxide emissions seem to have decreased by more than .5 percent this past year, according to BBC.
This could be the start of a positive trend for emissions reduction, as Professor Corinne Le Quere of the Univeristy of East Anglia noted that much of the change was due to China’s reduced use of coal. Despite the decline in that country’s coal use, China still represents more than a quarter of total global emissions.
In a press release, the United States Green Building Council announced new plans that it hopes to accomplish by 2020, which include supporting “a projected 5 billion square feet” of LEED-friendly green buildings. The USGBC did so as part of a group of 25 different similar councils from around the world at COP21.
Terri Wills of the World Green Building Council said in the statement that USGBC is still a strong leader in environmentally friendly construction.
“We know how to build bigger and bigger. The challenge is to build bigger and better and at the same time improve our existing buildings stock,” Willis said. “And it is commitments like these that will underscore the critical importance of using every tool at our disposal to achieve the 2 degree world we need to ensure for our future.”
Environmental office solutions, specifically involving furniture, can be affordable and simple ways to reduce the size of an organization’s carbon footprint with an eye on the future.
