The government has taken steps toward establishing its national Sustainable Building Labelling System to establish a credible and transparent system for sustainable, affordable and climate-resilient buildings across the country.
The initiative was announced on Monday in Dhaka at a Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on the implementation of Design for Environment and Sustainable Habitats (HBRI-DESH).
The workshop was largely attended by representatives from government, UN agencies, financial institutions, academia, professional bodies and the private sector.
HBRI-DESH is a nationally owned instrument that will help translate Bangladesh's commitment to sustainable urban development into practical action.
The workshop was led by the Housing and Building Research Institute under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, in collaboration with the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the UN Environment Programme and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), according to the UN-Habitat.
The initiative has been taken under the project called Transforming the Built Environment through Sustainable Materials in Bangladesh, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The inaugural session of the workshop was attended by Ferdousi Begum, Additional Secretary and Chairman of the National Housing Authority, Asifur Rahman Bhuiyan, Chief Architect, Department of Architecture and Giasuddin Haider, Director General of HBRI.
"Through strong collaboration among government, the private sector and development partners, we can establish a credible and transparent system that promotes sustainable, affordable and climate-resilient buildings across the country," said Ms Ferdousi Begum.
The consultation generated recommendations on governance, institutional coordination, financing mechanisms, capacity development and digital systems, which will directly inform HBRI-DESH's implementation guidelines and a phased national rollout, including pilot initiatives and partnerships to encourage wider adoption, said UN-Habitat.
The initiative supports Bangladesh's Nationally Determined Contributions and progress toward Sustainable Development Goals 11, 12 and 13, marking an important milestone toward a low-carbon, resource-efficient and climate-resilient built environment.
Bangladesh, among the world's fastest-urbanising countries, has seen its urban population roughly double in two decades and is projected to become majority-urban by 2037, with housing demand expected to reach 10.5 million units by 2030, according to the International Finance Corporation.
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