This publication was prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the OECD Programme on Decarbonising Buildings in Cities and Regions in the Programme of Work and Budget of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). The report was supported financially by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan (MLIT) and the Building Center of Japan (BCJ).
The project was led by Takeshi Miyamori, Senior Manager of the Sustainable Buildings Unit, with the support of Marie Hanagata and Ji Soo Yoon, Policy Analysts, under the supervision of Aziza Akhmouch, Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development (CITY) Division in the CFE.
The report was drafted by Marie Hanagata and Ji Soo Yoon under the guidance of Takeshi Miyamori. Additional contributions were provided by Connaught Lee and Matylda Strand, with desk research support from Andres Rocha Zarate and Gunes Ozcoban (all CFE). The report benefited from comments and suggestions from Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director, and Soo-Jin Kim, Deputy Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division in the CFE.
The report also draws on interviews of stakeholders in the European Commission, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland during a fact-finding mission conducted in June 2024.
The authors extend their gratitude to the respondents of the OECD Global Survey on Whole Life Carbon of Buildings: Aleksi Heikkilä (Team Leader, City of Helsinki), Alexandra Albuquerque Maciel (Technical Advisor to the General Coordination of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Brazil), Arun Rao (Principal Policy and Programmes Officer, Greater London Authority), Helle Redder Momsen (Special Advisor / Head of Secretariat Nordic Sustainable Construction, Danish Authority of Social Services and Housing), Hibiki Sueda (Chief Official, Counsellor’s Office for Building Regulations, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan), Hiroshi Uda (Director for Charge of Buildings, Bureau of Environment, Tokyo), Johanna af Hällströ (Chief Specialist, City of Helsinki), Josephine Nellerup (Urban Planning Strategist, City Planning Office, Malmö), Lena Hagert Pilenås (Head of Unit, Swedish National Board of Housing Building and Planning – Boverket, Sweden), Masaya Sasaki (Director for Building and Environment, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan), Mathias Oliva y Hausmann (Head of Division, Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building, Germany), Miguel Cortés Sánchez (Director, Ministry of Housing and Human Settlements, Costa Rica), Ong Yong Qing (Senior Manager, Ministry of National Development / Building and Construction Authority, Singapore), Paul Cronjaeger (Policy Officer, Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany), Philip Mortensen (Senior Adviser, Agency for Climate, Oslo), Rhian Williams (Principal Planner, Greater London Authority, United Kingdom), Roni Bar (Division Head, Israeli Planning Administration, Israel), Tessa Armour (Specialist of Urban Sustainability, City of Espoo, Finland), Vincent Lapeyre (Environmental Quality Project Manager for Buildings and Products, Ministry of the Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, France), and Zahra Teshnizi (Senior Planner, Embodied Carbon, City of Vancouver).
In addition, the report builds on the insights gained during two OECD Sustainable Buildings Roundtables co-hosted with Japan and France, held on 12-13 October 2023 and 10-11 October 2024. Participants from the European Commission, Nordic Sustainable Construction, Canada, Estonia, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Greater London Authority (UK), the City of Helsinki (Finland), the City of Malmö (Sweden), Seoul Metropolitan Government (Korea), and Tokyo Metropolitan Government (Japan) are gratefully acknowledged for their inputs on their whole life carbon policies.
An earlier version of the report was discussed at the 36th session of the OECD Working Party on Urban Policy (WPURB) on 3 December 2024, under cote [CFE/RDPC/URB(2024)25]. The final report was submitted to the WPURB for approval by written procedure on 17 January 2025, under cote [CFE/RDPC/URB(2024)25/REV1]. The publication process was led by Jack Waters (CFE).