New Joint Committee on the GLOBE Consensus (JCGC)
for Sustainable Development of the Built Environment
The Liaison Committee of six of the largest international associations active in the civil engineering sector and representing experts from more than 150 nation states has launched the Joint Committee on the GLOBE Consensus (JCGC). The purpose is to lead the global green transition of civil and structural engineering and building materials sciences, the backbone of the built environment and most of societal infrastructure systems.
The Liaison Committee published the GLOBE Consensus in 2020. This is a statement from world-leading experts in structural engineering and material sciences, highlighting the urgent need to improve sustainability in the built environment and pointing at key facilitators and instruments for achieving this. See here for CIB’s commitment: https://cibworld.org/global-consensus-on-sustainability-in-the-built-environment/.
Whilst positive signs were observed at the recent COP26 Conference in Glasgow, societal decision makers have not fully recognised the role of the built environment – and civil engineering in particular – as a major challenge and obstacle for global sustainable development.
Now the Joint Committee on the GLOBE Consensus (JCGC) will prepare and disseminate policy advice and existing knowledge on how to build, manage and renew structures sustainably, and where relevant, develop new fundamental knowledge.
The JCGC has an explicit focus on the global challenges of sustainability in the built environment, the different contexts associated with different geographies, cultures and needs for further developments, and how these differences must be accounted for locally when identifying how to enhance sustainability globally. The Committee’s view is that a substantial part of the built environment sustainability challenge may be overcome using the best already-available knowledge adapted to the local contexts.
NOTES TO EDITORS
- The Liaison Committee coordinates the activities of the following six major international associations, see www.iabse.org/About/Liaison-Committee for more information:
- International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures (RILEM)
- International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB)
- European Convention for Constructional Steelwork (ECCS)
- International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib)
- International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE)
- International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS).
- For details of the GLOBE Consensus and how to express support, see www.rilem.net/article/globe-global-consensus-on-sustainability-in-the-built-environment-192.
- For further information on the JCGC and the GLOBE Consensus, please contact the Chair of the Committee Michael Havbro Faber: [email protected].
- For further information on the work of the Liaison Committee, please contact its secretary Don Ward, Chief Executive of CIB: [email protected].
