www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/news/sustainable-buildings-construction.html

EVENT: 20-22 April 2026

The Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit 2026 in Lausanne, Switzerland convenes government officials, academics, private sector leaders, financiers, and civil society to advance climate action in the building sector. Its aim is to accelerate the transition to a resilient built environment worldwide, with particular focus on emerging markets and developing economies.

https://sustainable-construction.org/

Building on the success of the 2024 Global Forum on Buildings and Climate held in Paris, the Summit is co-organised by EPFL's Centre for Worldwide Sustainable Construction and the UN Environment Programme as host of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (GABC) secretariat.

The Summit will focus on emerging markets and developing economies—where built environment growth will be greatest—driving action to transform the sector into a driver of environmental sustainability through holistic approaches that seamlessly integrate resilience and socio-economic factors.

The three-day programme features high-level plenaries with government and industry leaders from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America; the Intergovernmental Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC) Technical Meeting advancing international cooperation on national climate commitments; academic showcases; and cross-disciplinary workshops addressing implementation barriers in urgent housing needs, self-construction, climate-resilient design, circularity, digital solutions and AI, building electrification, gender equity, and urban planning.

The Workshops form the interactive core of the Programme, bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners to collaboratively explore solutions for accelerating sustainable buildings and construction. Through interdisciplinary dialogue, hands-on sessions, and shared expertise, the workshops are designed to bring out immediately actionable pathways that support climate-resilient, inclusive, and low-carbon development across the built environment. Workshop topics include:

• Self-construction in developing countries: housing within and beyond formal systems
• Extreme weather-resilient construction
• Procurement to accelerate sustainable buildings and construction
• Sustainable accounting for the built environment - one model doesn't fit all
• Renovation refurbishment (energy and embodied emissions)
• Urban design and urban planning
• Scaling building electrification for climate impact 
• Delivering affordable housing that lasts
• Culture and social sustainability as the base for sustainable construction
• Buildings and infrastructure: designing sustainable, connected system
• Digital solutions and AI for sustainable built environment
• Circularity: reduce/optimise, re-use and recycle, repurpose
• Govenance: NDC vs SDG
• Gender and the built environment

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