World Green Building Council partners with Earth Day Network

WorldGBC also announces partnership on campaign to collect air quality data from across the world.

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has announced a new partnership with the Earth Day Network that will support some of its flagship 50th anniversary campaigns with awareness raising and action, including a key citizen science initiative on air quality.

Earth Day Network, which coordinates the largest environmental alliance in the world for the annual Earth Day events, aims to mobilise more than 3.5 billion people in 2020 under the overarching theme of climate change.

Among its initiatives are:

  • #VoteEarth – a campaign to encourage especially young people to exercise their democratic rights by voting for candidates with strong climate policies in the more than 100 national elections occurring between now and the end of 2020
  • The Great Global Cleanup – a worldwide engagement of citizens, communities, cities, companies and governments aimed at turning the tide on waste that will occur in April 2020
  • Earth Challenge 2020 (EC2020)—a global citizen science initiative whose three principle partners are EDN, the Wilson Center and the US State Department: it aims to gather data from the public worldwide that will feed into existing large-scale scientific, monitoring and environmental assessment projects.

Under EC2020, the public are being asked to contribute to data collection about six key research questions, including one on the quality of local air.

In a further partnership, also announced, WorldGBC will work with a leading healthy building standards and certification body RESET on a Plant a Sensor campaign that aims to champion the roll out of air quality monitoring devices inside and outside buildings.

The Plant a Sensor campaign will promote action to reduce air pollution from buildings by increasing awareness of air quality, therefore raising awareness of the urgency of a sustainable built environment around the globe.

The data collected from Plant a Sensor will be contributed to the Earth Challenge 2020 citizen science initiative.

According to the World Health Organisation, 91 per cent of the world’s population lives in places where air quality exceeds their guidelines.

Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council said the council is excited to enter into this partnership with Earth Day Network and launch the Plant a Sensor campaign.

“We believe that the data collection consolidated by Earth Challenge 2020 will facilitate a global boost in awareness about the extent of the air pollution crisis,” Gamboa said.

“We hope this knowledge will empower action on the urgency of securing a sustainable built environment and combating the pollution that is causing climate change and impacting the health of millions of people while triggering necessary responses from citizens, the private sector and policy makers.”

Kathleen Rogers, CEO, Earth Day Network said 2020 is a crucial year for a range of pressing environmental issues including the existential threat posed by climate change.

“Everyone everywhere needs to up their game if we are to solve the challenges and unleash the opportunities. EC2020 is about mobilsing the public with purpose to collect quality data that will lead to scaled-up action and foster decisive and defining solutions including on air pollution. We are delighted to have joined forces with WorldGBC to boost our collective success in our 50th anniversary year”.

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