Our learnings from two decades of engagement in the building sector
This webinar - organized by the CDE Network on 30 September 2026 - brought together experts from the SDC and INFRAS to explore the role of buildings in climate change mitigation and in strengthening (climate) resilience, along with presenting SDC’s long-standing engagement in transforming the building sector. The slides are now available.
Event summary
The webinar began with a presentation of key findings from a capitalization exercise on the SDC engagement in the building sector conducted by INFRAS. With the global building stock growing rapidly, especially in developing economies, buildings are key both to climate mitigation and to resilience, as their occupants are increasingly exposed to natural hazards. The SDC has addressed both through technical approaches such as passive design, energy renovation and low-carbon materials, and instruments including building code revisions, demonstration projects and market enablement. A key lesson is that transformation in the building sector takes time and requires flexibility, coordination across lines of action and the right partner mix. The presentation concluded that such engagement delivers tangible benefits for people, such as lower energy costs, higher thermal comfort, better health and productivity.
The session continued with a deep dive on the Indo-Swiss Programme on Building Energy Efficiency (BEEP) in India, a flagship initiative of the Swiss International Cooperation. Launched in 2008, BEEP transferred Swiss expertise, knowledge and international know-how to develop building energy efficiency solutions suited to India’s diverse context. The program effectively connected with the Indian government and facilitated collaborations among technical institutions, building experts, industry and practitioners at national and sub-nations levels. As a result, 70 large buildings, covering social housing, school, hospital, commercial and public building, showcased energy savings in the range of 15-45%, providing proof of concept that energy efficient buildings are achievable at scale.
Finally, participants engaged in a short group exercise, in which they were asked to identify potential interventions in the building sector of a fictional country. Key points raised included creating an enabling ecosystem for supply and demand (e.g. by strengthening the supply of energy-efficient materials and raising builders’ awareness of existing solutions), implementing pilot projects that showcase good examples to incentivize the private sector to act, and focusing on a particular segment of the building sector (e.g. mid-scale residential buildings or small health centers) or on a specific geographic region.
Documentation
webinar recording will be available soon