The Carbon Trust has launched a campaign to persuade businesses to lead from the front on climate change by commissioning eco-friendly buildings.

The Carbon Trust has launched a campaign to persuade businesses to lead from the front on climate change by commissioning eco-friendly buildings.

It is calling on Scottish business to take heed of the model set by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), whose new headquarters was the 2006 "sustainable building of the year".

The mission of the trust, which receives funding from the Scottish Executive, is to accelerate the move to a low-carbon economy by helping organisations reduce their emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.

The trust has enlisted the support of Sir Jonathan Porritt, founder of Forum for the Future as well as chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, who told an Edinburgh seminar: "If we get decisions right about low carbon and sustainable buildings, we can start to fashion a new infrastructure because buildings last so long."

A European directive on the energy performance of buildings had so far produced a slow response from the property industry and from government, Porritt said. "Our government has been slow to carry out the implementation of the directive, a very important one, which means that from June 2007 buildings will need to have an energy performance certificate to demonstrate their levels of energy consumption. In time, this will include all buildings."

Porritt said low carbon design might add between 2% and 4% to the cost of houses and small offices, more to bigger projects. But he added: "In some respects this additional cost is a consequence of these buildings being so rare - you are paying a premium."

John Stocks, the trust's chief executive, said buildings amounted to "half our carbon footprint", and without a focus on the built environment, the transition to low carbon could not be achieved. "Therefore we need to get very senior people starting to say not go off and buy a building' but go off and buy a low carbon building'."

Stocks went on: "What we have to do is highlight to them the real business benefits ... it is too easy to allow people to leave the design of buildings in the hands of professionals."

Buildings such as SNH's exploited the potential of natural light, for instance, and avoided energy intensive air conditioning.

He said the trust had started working with some public agencies including Inverclyde Council. "Some have been better than others, my suspicion is we can go a lot further, and hopefully we will start to get a ball rolling."