The Global Building Data Initiative (GBDI) aims to establish a global data initiative to inform action for reducing resource use and upfront embodied carbon of new buildings. The initiative seeks to assess the current status quo through building data analysis and benchmarking, promote consistent target setting, and inform effective decarbonization actions. By empowering decision-makers in industry and policy, the initiative will drive decarbonization action for buildings considering a whole life-cycle approach. The initiative is implemented under the umbrella of GLOBE - The Global Consensus on Sustainability in the Built Environment. GLOBE is particularly well-placed to lead a global effort due to their extensive network of 5000+ experts across 150+ nation states. With this initiative, GLOBE aims to establish a common data protocol for quantifying resource use and embodied carbon emissions in building structures for global benchmarking and effective reduction.

The initiative aims for a global assessment of resource use and embodied carbon of new buildings, with special attention to involvement of crucial Global South regions. It will develop a coordinated, open, and scalable data protocol and the technical infrastructure required for global data collection and analysis. The initiative will start with a focus on assessing resource use and upfront embodied carbon of structural systems, considering future scalability and extendibility towards a whole life cycle and whole building perspective in future phases. The initiative will collect and assess data on as many buildings as possible, aiming to establish a global building dataset comprising information on at least 10.000 buildings. The collected data will be leveraged to understand the current baseline as well as identify best practice. These insights will subsequently be used to inform the setting of consistent reduction targets and context-specific reference decarbonization pathways. The data collection analysis will furthermore enable identification and assessment of viable strategies for carbon reduction and removal. To promote shared responsibility and leverage existing knowledge and networks, active collaboration with relevant initiatives on a global scale will be pursued.