The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) is a global federation of Green Building Councils from the United States, Canada, Australia, India, Taiwan and Mexico.
The federation is quickly growing and Green Building Councils are beginning to emerge in the following countries: Brazil, Chile, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, New Zealand and in the United Arab Emirates. By uniting the Green Building Councils from around the world, it has become possible for nations to work together and share knowledge, resources and common principles that will advance the development of greener buildings (http://www.worldgbc.org/). The WorldGBC was launched in 1998 by David Gottfried, founder of the US Green Building Council. The vision of the WorldGBC is to provide a balanced and diverse global platform which, coordinates and advances the work of green building organizations from around the world and supports the development of green building standards, products, technologies and projects. The individual green building councils each support the development and implementation of green building principles, performance measures, rating and certification systems and resources. Each Green Building Council is an open, non-profit membership coalition of the building industries diverse sectors (http://www.gbcaus.org/). The WorldGBC is the budding of a global long-term consciousness, which emphasizes the need for sustainable alternatives within the building industry. As Brendan Crotty, the Managing Director of Australia’s Green Building Council, insists, “[The Council] is all about creating an environmentally sustainable and economically viable industry. If we don’t address environmentally sustainable practice in the long-term the industry won’t be economically viable”(http://www.gbcaus.org/). The members of the WorldGBC are committed to finding a balance between our urban centers and the environment. A quote taken from the United Nations Environment publication for World Environment Day 2005, is an illustrative example of the need to find such a balance: In 2005, for the first time in human history, more people will live in urban areas than in rural areas. This transformation has already had a huge impact on the planet’s resources, as well as an impact on our perspective of nature and the environment. No prior human experience offers a guide on how to feed, house and sustain so many people in so many cities. This generation must be committed to the task of bringing urban areas into balance with the natural environment (http://www.worldgbc.org/). In order to find such a balance the WorldGBC, among other things, has committed itself to changing the property industry which is defined as all those who produce, develop, plan, design, build, alter, or maintain the built environment (this includes those who manufacture building materials as well as those who supply them and those who buy them). Buildings consume an overwhelming proportion of the earth’s recourses. For example, buildings account for one-sixth of the world’s fresh water withdrawals, one-quarter of its wood harvest, and two-fifths of its material energy flows (Rodman, and Lenssen, 1995). The WorldGBC has targeted the property industry because once there is a sustainable property industry, it will become possible for the industry to balance environmental, social and economic issues (http://www.worldgbc.org/). In viewing environmental problems as shared world problems, as opposed to specific nation problems, we can begin to find global solutions that will benefit everyone and ultimately bring us into a healthier, happier and more sustainable future. The WorldGBC provides one way of simultaneously thinking and acting on a local and global level.