Buildings

Green investments in the building sector

Buildings account for 40% of global emissions, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns the sector is not on track to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

Rapid investment in green building solutions is essential. Fortunately, existing technologies can quickly decarbonise both new and renovated buildings.

What are the Buildings Criteria?

The Buildings Criteria define what qualifies as a green building investment under Climate Bonds Certification. They cover three key areas:

Commercial Buildings
Residential Buildings
Upgrade Projects

To achieve Certification, building owners must demonstrate that the financed buildings follow a zero-carbon trajectory. This is determined using a baseline emission intensity target, representing the top 15% of building performance in a given city or typology. We apply our Extrapolation Methodology to establish these trajectories globally.

Key milestones

In 2023, the Criteria were expanded to include New Buildings, bringing significant advancements:

Greater clarity for investors.
Integration of technological innovations.
Coverage of a broader range of building types.
Alignment with the EU Taxonomy for sustainable finance.

Resilience Buildings Criteria

The Resilience Buildings Criteria following the Climate Bonds Resilience Taxonomy (CBRT) is underway and will be launched for public consultation by December 2026.

The criteria is developed by the technical working group (TWG) and the Industry Working Group (IWG). The TWG members are:

Working group

Dr. Anil Sawhney

Head of Sustainability

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Abigail Godsend

GBCSA Research and Content Creation Co-ordinator

Dr. Anna Braune

Head of the Research and Development

German Sustainable Building Council - DGNB

Dr. Carolina Montano Owen

Technical Lead for Sustainable Buildings

World Green Building Council

Chris Pyke

Chief Innovation Officer

GRESB

Eva-Maria Stumpp

Research and Development

German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB)

Georgina Smit

Chief Executive Officer

Green Building Council South Africa

Hanane El Hayek

Director, Market Development Western Europe

GBCI Europe

Hugh Garnett

Senior Specialist Real Assets

Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change

Jorge Chapa

Chief Impact Officer

Green Building Council of Australia

Manisha Shetty

Counsellor

Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), CII

Mathew John Francis

Technical Lead for the Building Resilience Index (BRI) programme

International Finance Corporation

Mark Pelling

Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction, Institute of Risk and Disaster Reduction

University College London

Ommid Saberi

Global program lead – Green and Resilient Buildings

World Bank Group

Paul Smith

Senior Consultant, Climate Change

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative

Rebecca Laberenne

Principal, Climate Risk and Resilience

U.S. Green Building Council

Ryan Colker

Executive Director, Energy, Resilience & Innovation

International Code Council (ICC)

Sameer Pethe

Resilience Lead

BREEAM

Dr. Shivraj Dhaka

Principal Counsellor

Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), CII

Dr Stavroula Koutroump

Chartered Architect and Sustainability Engineer (RIBA, MCIBSE, CEng) with a PhD in Building Science from the

University of Cambridge

Tracy Liu

Principal Manager

Building and Construction Authority

Dr. Vanesa Rodriguez

Senior Consultant, Climate Transition Sector Lead

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative

Yetunde Abdul

Independent Consultant

IWG is under way and if any one is interested to join the IWG, please get in touch at info@climatebonds.net.

*IWG members comprises of financial institutions, corporates and non-corporates, SPOs, verifiers, issuers, insurers and investors. The role of IWG will be to test the applicability and the practicality of the resilience buildings criteria in the market that is developed by the TWG.

Location Specific Criteria for Residential Buildings

Country	State	State/Sub Category	Proxy	Brochure

Australia	New South Wales	Single & multifamily	BASIX Energy 40 Within the context of RMBS transactions in Australia, Maximum Weighted Average Life can be substituted for Maximum Tenor	PDF
Australia	Tasmania	Single & multifamily	Building code Australia (BCA) 2013 Within the context of RMBS transactions in Australia, Maximum Weighted Average Life can be substituted for Maximum Tenor	PDF
Australia	Victoria	Single & multifamily	Building code Australia (BCA) 2011 Within the context of RMBS transactions in Australia, Maximum Weighted Average Life can be substituted for Maximum Tenor	PDF
Australia	All States except Western Australia	House or apartment	Australian Residential Rooftop Solar Proxies for the Certification of houses or apartments using solar rooftop installations Rooftop Solar Proxy Spreadsheet The Simplified Solar Rooftop Proxy is valid until June 2022. If there are any questions, please contact standards@climatebonds.net	PDF
Australia	All states	Residential	Australian Residential Proxy for Green Star Homes Certified by the GBCA and comply with Renewable Energy Pathway A or B and do not include a swimming pool. Further detail is availabe here.
Belgium	Country wide	Single & multifamily	Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of A OR Flemish building code after 2014
China	Country wide	Single & multifamily	Evaluation Standard for Green Building rating of 3 Star
Colombia	Country Wide	Social Housing Buildings	Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (CCCS)	PDF
Colombia	Country Wide	Residential Buildings	Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (CCCS)	PDF
Colombia	Country Wide	Sustainable Buildings	CASA Colombia	English Spanish Infographic
Finland	Country wide	Single & multifamily	Use E - value shown on EPC - Please refer to PDF for more details. Also, properties built after Janaury 1st 2015 qualify. The tenor of the bond is to be a maximum of 10 years.	PDF
France	Metropolitan France	Single & multifamily	New residential buildings complying with Thermal Regulation RE2020 and built with a construction permit issued after 1 January 2022	PDF
Guatemala	Country Wide	Sustainable Buildings	CASA Guatemala	English Spanish
Germany	Country wide	Single & multifamily	Energieausweis (EPC) rating of A OR B	PDF
Hungary	Country wide	Single & Multifamily	Residential buildings in Hungary are eligible for certification if their specific primary energy consumption (Fajlagos Primer Energiafogyasztás) published on an Energy Performance Certificate (Energetikai tanúsítvány) dated after Jan 1 2016, lies below the hurdle rate established for the midpoint of the term of the bond.	PDF
India	Country wide	Residential	Buildings certified under the IGBC Green Homes ® Rating system v3.0. See additional information in the brochure.	PDF
Ireland	Coutrywide	Single & multifamily	House or Apartment meeting trajectory requirements for CO2 emissions as shown on BER certificates. New buildings constructed after 2015 are automatically eligible if the mid-point of the bond term is no later than 2032. Upgrade and retrofit of asset: minimum 30% reduction in CO2 emissions, depending on tenor of bond, based on reduction in the CO2 emission figure from BER certificates.	PDF
Mexico	Country Wide	Single & Multifamily	Ecocasa-certified residential buildings that achieve a minimum of 20% reduction in CO2e emissions against the baseline, measured using the DEEVi tool. The version of Ecocasa elegible is the current version as of 1 June 2020. The tenor of the bond is to be a maximum of 10 years.	PDF
Mexico	Country Wide	Single & Multifamily	Minergie certifies new or existing residential buildings that satisfy Fuel-Free, Efficient Energy Production points, as well as Minergie-Barrio.	PDF
Netherlands	Country wide	Single & multifamily	Post 2012: Dutch Building Decree 2012 & Netherland Normalisation Institute (NEN) 7120 standard ---------- Pre 2012: Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Rating A ---------- Upgrade and Retrofit: Improvement of at least two EPC levels to at least C. Ie E > C, D > B, or C > A, correspond to at least 30% reduction in CO2 emissions	PDF
Norway	Country wide	Single & multifamily	House or Apartment: Energimerking (EPC) rating of A, B OR C OR Houses: TEK (Building Code) 2007, or TEK 2010 Apartments: TEK (Building Code) 2010 Houses and Apartments: TEK (Building Code) 2017
Peru	Country wide	Social Housing Buildings	Mivivienda Sustainable Programme current 11th Version Rating Scheme	PDF
Poland	Country wide	Single & multifamily	Assets meeting trajectory requirements for primary energy demand Assets qualified by year of construction (TC2017/2021) Upgrade and retrofit of asset: 30-50% improvement in CO2 emissions, depending on tenor of bond, based on reduction in the CO2 emission figure from EPCs from before and after the retrofit, which meet the requirement of Technical Note 2014 (issued after July 2015)	PDF
South Africa	Country wide	Single & multifamily	New and refurbished residential buildings complying with SANS10400-XA standard
Spain	Catalonia	House or apartment	Residential buildings in Catalonia are eligible for certification if their carbon intensity (Emissiones de CO2) published on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) (Qualificació Energètica) lies below the hurdle rate established for the midpoint of the term of the bond. See emissions calculator below.	PDF
Sweden	Country wide	House or apartment	House or Apartment meeting trajectory requirements for CO2 emissions as shown on Energy Performance Certificates The trajectories are different depending on whether the EPC's are created before or after Version 2.6. (See PDF)	PDF
Switzerland	Country wide (Canton-dependent)		3 standards: Minergie A, Minergie P and Minergie. There is a minimum threshold that must be met for all requirements. It has not yet been determined how long the proxy would be valid for, however it is currently acceptable for a default maximum tenor of 10 years. All certified buildings are to meet a minimum index. (See PDF).	PDF
United Kingdom	England and Wales	Single & multifamily Single & multifamily	Environmental Impact (EI) rating of A or B or Emissions Intensity Target Dependent on the Tenor of the Bond as part of the Energy Performance Certificate programme	PDF
United States	California	Single & multifamily	California building code Title 24 compliant (Updated 2022-03-23)	PDF
United States	New York	Single & multifamily	Multifamily housing: NYSERDA’s relevant programs (e.g. the New Construction - Housing (NC-Housing) Program) or one of New York State Homes and Community Renewal’s Clean Energy Incentive offerings. 1. Tier 3 NC-Housing 2. Carbon Neutral Ready + Health NC-Housing Additionally, any building constructed after December 2022 must not use fossil fuels for heating, hot water, cooking or on-site electricity generation other than back-up power requirements.	PDF
International	International		LEED Gold OR Platinum TOGETHER WITH 30% improvement above the levels in ASHRAE 90.1 Only able to be used where a local proxy has not been established 10 year limit on bond tenor. Date of LEED certification must be within 5 years before bond issuance
International	International		EDGE certified Only able to be used in developing countries. 10 year limit on bond tenor
International	International		Net Zero subject to confirmation of local country schemes
International	International		Living Building Challenge Certified

For locations where buildings emissions performance data does not exist, or is too limited to be representative of the market, the Low Carbon Building Criteria Technical Working Group has established a series of proxies. These proxies undergo extensive reviews to ensure that they are representative of buildings in-line with a zero-carbon building sector in 2050.

For issuers looking to use locally available tools, rating systems, or performance schemes as proxies for meeting the Low-Carbon Building Standard, see the Proxy Methodology document for additional guidance.

Please note if you would propose for the Certification to use a building code or rating system from your building, which is not listed in this table, then it may take the Working Group up to two weeks to evaluate whether the proposed code / system may be used for Certification.

Location Specific Criteria for Commercial Buildings

Low carbon emissions trajectories or proxy’s, represent rapid decarbonisation trajectories aligned with the goals of Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5oC.

Trajectories are expressed as an emission intensity metric (kgCO2/m2), while
Accepted proxies represent a range of national and international building codes and sustainability rating schemes that represents the top 15% best energy performance of the considered buildings in that specific country. Information assessed to determine them are: build year, post occupancy evaluations, performance rating and standards.

Country	Coverage	Subsector	Proxy/Trajectory	Brochure
Australia	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below.
Australia	City specific	Supermarkets	Emissions Calculator can be found below.
Australia	City specific	Laboratories	Trajectory developed for Melbourne using a 2017 baseline* of 358.8 kgCO2/m2. The CBI Zero Carbon Trajectory strarts at 358.8 kgCO2/m2 in 2017 and declines by 10.87kgCO2/m2 per year. Chemical, biological and chemical-biological laboratories are eligible. Laboratory usage must comprise minimum 30% of the Gross Floor Area.
Australia	All States	Buildings	Australian Proxy for Green Star Buildings Certified by the GBCA under the Green Star Buildings scheme and comply with the Climate Positive Path. Further details are available here.
Australia	Country-wide	Public Hospitals	Public Hospital buildings in Australia are now eligible for certification if their certified NABERS Energy star rating, without green power purchases, is above the hurdle rate established for the midpoint of the term of the bond. For further details, please contact standards@climatebonds.net	PDF
Austria	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Belgium	Country wide	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Canada	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
China	Country wide	Office	Evaluation Standard (operational) for Green Building rating of 3 Star	PDF
Czechia	Coutry wide	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Denmark	Country wide	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
France	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Germany	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below for new issuances	PDF
India	Country wide	(Building include, but not limited to): offices, IT parks, banks, shopping malls, hospitals, airports, convention centres, educational instutuions (colleges, universities), factories and schools	Buildings that achieve a Net Zero Rating under the IGBC Net Zero Building rating system. Buildings in construction and recently completed buildings must provide additional pre-issuance document. See brouche for additional information.	PDF
Italy	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Ireland	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Japan	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below	PDF
Korea	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below	PDF
Mexico	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below	PDF
Mexico	Country Wide	Single & Multifamily	Minergie certifies new or existing residential buildings that satisfy Fuel-Free, Efficient Energy Production points, as well as Minergie-Barrio.	PDF
Netherlands	Country wide	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Norway	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Poland	Country Wide	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below. Entry for Warsaw can be used for all cities in Poland
Portugal	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Singapore	Country wide	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Spain	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
Sweden	City Specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below
United Kingdom (England and Wales)	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below	PDF
U.S.A	City specific	Office	See Emissions Calculator drop down menu below.
International	International	All applicable commercial building types	LEED Gold OR Platinum TOGETHER WITH 30% improvement above the levels in ASHRAE 90.1. (Only able to be used where a local proxy has not been established) 6 year limit on bond tenor. Date of LEED certification must be within 5 years before bond issuance.
International	Global	Office and Shopping Centres	EDGE Certified Only able to be used in developing countries
International	Global		Net Zero Energy subject to confirmation of local country schemes
International	Global		Living Building Challenge Certified

*This baseline is considered interim (not groundtruthed yet) so, please, contact standards@climatebonds.net if you want to use it or for reporting requirements

Trajectory Calculator