AIA Shanghai - The Owner Initiative: What is Embodied ESG data of projects and Why are Clients asking for it

Speaker: Raefer Wallis, Founder, GIGA

CES: 1.0 LU/ HSW for AIA Members

Event Description

The events of 2020 served as a brutal wake up call to real-estate owners for how quickly the global economy could be destabilized by environmental and social events. As a result, reporting on ESG performance (Environmental, Social, Governance) has risen to the top of the agenda for most owners as a means to mitigate future risk of disruption. But, what does it mean and how does it affect architects?

The largest part of ESG performance is embedded in the choice of materials and their application. This session will focus on introducing why owners have joined forces to tackle 'the problem with building materials' in APAC and globally.

Speakers

Raefer Wallis, Founder, GIGA

Raefer Wallis is an Architect and the founder of GIGA, an independent third party combining the development of building standards with cloud technology to increase the accessibility and impact of healthy buildings globally.

Working at the intersection of healthy buildings and cloud technology, Raefer has pioneered standards for data quality which are used internationally and serve as foundations for both RESET and ORIGIN, GIGA’s two primary areas of focus:

- RESET is an international performance standard and certification program for healthy green buildings based on data that is collected and assessed on a daily basis, be it building material data from reporting bodies or operational data from sensors.

- ORIGIN is the world’s largest hub of performance data on building materials and a proud supporter of the mindful Materials collaborative.

 Regularly invited to lecture around the world, his work has been featured by the NYT, CNN, BBC, CBC, TED, WSJ, Guardian, Globe & Mail, Architectural Digest and many more.