Sept. 27, 2023 (Washington, D.C.) – Today, Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) announced that the Arc performance platform is tracking 10 billion square feet of project space in 148 countries—an increase of nearly three billion square feet over the last 12 months. The growth demonstrates a rapidly increasing sustainability practice by companies and organizations to track and benchmark building performance to showcase their environmental and social responsibility efforts. Arc metrics also enable users to identify and address energy inefficiencies, ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the impact of climate change.
“Tracking and improving building performance is critical to decarbonize the built environment at the speed and scale necessary to achieve the Paris Climate Accord targets,” said Peter Templeton, president and CEO, GBCI and Arc. “I am thrilled that usage of the Arc platform is rapidly increasing and continuing to provide value to our stakeholders.”
On Arc, 256 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from energy use and transportation are being tracked. Commercial buildings comprise the largest share of project space (43.61%) tracked in Arc, highlighting how businesses use data to track and improve building performance. Other sectors among the top tracked project spaces are retail (7.91%), warehouse (6.01%), education (3.31%) and residential (2.16%).
Globally, organizations are using data-driven approaches to comply with commitments tied to decarbonization, health and well-being, resilience, and other environmental and social outcomes. For many organizations, improving the performance of the buildings they own or occupy is a crucial strategy to reduce carbon emissions and achieve their goals.
Through Arc, projects can measure, track and score building performance and report daily metrics, including energy use, emissions and occupant satisfaction, capturing the real-world impact. The data allows owners and managers to make decisions to improve operations, reduce environmental impact and save on operational costs. Building owners can input data and visualize a score to take action, influence behavior, and seek a performance category certificate in any of five categories—energy, water, waste, transportation and human experience. To date, Arc has issued nearly 2,000 performance certificates.