Report says that Green Buildings are the fastest way to control GHG Emissions

Recent post in Cleantech.com refers to the "Green Building in North America" report by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Canada. Some interesting items:

- The potential reduction in CO2 from net zero - energy and carbon neutral buildings could equal the entire carbon emission loading of the US transportation sector from 2000.

- Key elements for acheiving goals of carbon reduction: ultra efficient materials and equipment; improvement in design processes; innovative financing; and construction and operations

- We need the development of environmental parameters and targets, and use of modeling to assess water & air impacts; use of renewable materials; maximize urban renewal and use of 'brownfields'; and meet water needs of the watershed

From an information management standpoint, it would seem that this is another validation point for the need for integrated lifecycle solutions (i.e. data modeling from the design phase all the way to operations & retirement of assets). This integrated information approach is also consistent with use of a sustainability platform to 'link' and access data sources (GHG emissions, toxic material use, environmental impacts, etc) and provide a roadmap for improvement and also report performance to all stakeholders and regulatory bodies.