As Paris readies for the COP21 International Climate talks, more than 54 building and real estate companies, including Thornton Tomasetti, Skanska and JLL, announced today that they have signed on to the Building and Real Estate Climate Declaration, a business call to action that urges policymakers to seize the economic opportunity of tackling climate change. The declaration was recognized before thousands of industry leaders and experts at the closing plenary of the annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo.
 
The Building and Real Estate Climate Declarationis a collaborative effort among the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Carbon Leadership Forum and Ceres. It is a companion to Ceres’ Climate Declaration, launched in 2013, which has more than 1,660 signatories nationwide, including iconic brands such as Gap Inc., General Mills,, Disney, Apple, and Starbucks. The building and real estate sector firms have signed their own Building and Real Estate Climate Declaration, to call attention to the specific risks and opportunities associated with climate change on the built sector industry, which is a major economic driver in the United States and produces 39 percent of carbon emissions annually.