The Saudi Green Buildings Forum concluded its participation in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF 2026) by delivering an oral statement before the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York, calling for a shift from the commitment phase to implementation based on measurement and verification, and adopting indicators for resource demand management.

The built environment sector requires a shift towards a 'sufficiency first' approach.

The statement came as an extension of an official document circulated by the UN Secretary-General to member states, based on the consultative status the forum holds with the Economic and Social Council.

The Secretary-General of the forum, Eng. Faisal Al-Fadl, explained that the global challenge is no longer a lack of commitments, but transforming them into measurable results, noting that the built environment sector, responsible for about 37% of emissions, requires a shift towards a 'sufficiency first' approach that focuses on managing demand volume before improving usage efficiency.

Al-Fadl stated that the forum has developed, through its system, an applied framework that makes sustainability measurable, verifiable, and accountable, documenting the success of this approach in over 120 initiatives in the Qassim region and 312 projects in 22 Arab countries, achieving tangible results in reducing emissions and rationalizing resource consumption.

The forum called for three main priorities: integrating demand management indicators into national policies, making measurement and verification mandatory in sustainability programs, and investing in data systems and building professional capacities, stressing that the phase of being satisfied with commitments has ended, and it is time for evidence-based and results-driven implementation.

The forum concluded its participation after an active presence that included organizing an official side event, delivering statements before UN bodies, holding meetings with officials from the organization and member states, alongside highlighting the Saudi experience in sustainability and conformity assessment, thereby enhancing the Kingdom's presence in international efforts aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.