Carbon data-sharing partnership to increase focus on built environment

The engineering consultancy Arup and not-for-profit Open Data Institute (ODI) have extended their long-term collaboration to further accelerate net-zero and carbon data-sharing initiatives. This will include a renewed focus on the built environment.

“Cities are of paramount importance, containing a great deal of the world’s built environment and act as a nexus for both data sharing and socio-technical policies that impact people,” Josh D’Addario, Project Lead and Principal Consultant, ODI, told Cities Today. “In this next phase, we will be extending the focus to broader infrastructure, including the infrastructure that enables and supports our cities, encompassing water, energy, transport and mobility. As well as driving carbon reduction, this will be done in the context of enabling and measuring the resilience required for adaptation.”

Over the past 11 years the two organisations have demonstrated the business need for net zero data strategies in the built environment as a means for tackling the climate crisis. They have both also played a part in accelerating the industry’s adoption of an ‘open’ building device naming standards (BDNS), advising the designing and running of an open standards process with British Land and Google, and developing standards for data governance including the built environment and aviation.

The next stage of the agreement will focus more on enabling net zero, starting with mapping the ecosystem’s current activities and convening the stakeholder group that attended last year’s co-hosted ‘Net zero data in the built environment’ roundtable.

“Breaking down the silos between initiatives, we will encourage further data between actors and ultimately help to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment by scaling net zero data sharing infrastructure safely and securely,” Jim Johnson, Director, Arup, told Cities Today. “Some of the organisations that we are already connected to include Icebreaker One, ClimateArc, Building Transparency and Green Building Council.”

Aware of the existing data-sharing initiatives in the built environment working to reduce carbon emissions, including the Open Climate Data Initiative (OCDI) and Open Net Zero, D’Addario added that the ODI isn’t setting out to create another one.

“Instead, we are pledging to help connect existing initiatives through dedicated engagement, convening, and, where needed, developing new data-sharing infrastructure. Our goal is to help scale up the already great work being done and break down data silos across the different initiatives–we encourage those in the sector to connect with us.”

Image: Brad Calkins | Dreamstime.com