Launching of Arc Japan, a Data Platform for Monitoring the Environmental Impact of Real Estate and Promoting a Low-carbon Economy

DBJ worked with Ark Skoru and Woonerf in establishing Arc Japan.

An estimated 40% of the world's CO2 emissions come from the real estate sector, including residential buildings. It is vital that businesses across industry comprehensively monitor the environmental impact of all buildings they own or use, including those which have already obtained environmental certification, and to move further along with initiatives to decarbonize the market as a whole.

Arc is a data platform which quantifies the environmental performance of real estate. The firm was developed by Arc Skoru, a subsidiary of the US company Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI), whose affiliates include Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the world-class environmental assessment tool for buildings and cities.

By entering into Arc's online system actual data on items such as greenhouse gases, waste emissions and water consumption, users can assign scores to the environmental performance of buildings and other spaces and compare them with similar real estate in Japan and overseas.

Since the establishment of its Green Building Certification program in 2011, DBJ has worked with a range of stakeholders to promote the construction and use of ESG real estate. By encouraging the broad use of Arc, DBJ and Arc Japan will help firms to visualize the environmental performance of their real estate, provide a mechanism that links their efforts with the world of finance, and ultimately enhance the sustainability of Japan's real estate and promote its transition to a low-carbon economy.