Building a green future: overcoming barriers to decarbonization

Net-Zero Buildings Could Create 2 Million+ Jobs

Highlights of IGS and Schneider Electric’s joint study in The Electricity Journal.

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Residential and commercial buildings currently account for nearly 40% of carbon emissions in the United States, making decarbonization essential to meeting long-term climate goals. To tackle this challenge, IGS is partnering with a global leader in sustainability, Schneider Electric — named the world’s most sustainable company for 2024 by TIME magazine and Statista.

As part of our ongoing research collaboration, IGS and the Schneider Electric Sustainability Research Institute published a first-of-its-kind study showing that over two million new jobs could be created in the US and Europe during the transition to net-zero buildings. These findings were spotlighted at the 2023 BNEF Summit in London.

Research Approach and Goals

And now this partnership is leading high-impact research on the social, political, and economic hurdles to building decarbonization. Our latest project aims to identify key barriers to sustainable building transitions and accelerate progress through comprehensive research, with the goal of driving advancements in policy and industry practices. Energy justice is an integral focus of this four-phase project, which includes a systematic literature review, interviews with key stakeholders, focus groups, and a survey. 


Related Publications

Air conditioning installation Building a Green Future: Examining the Job Creation Potential of Electricity, Heating, and Storage in Low-Carbon Buildings (6/1/2023)

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