Buildings emit a huge amount of CO2:
Buildings Account for 39% of CO2 emissions in the United States eesi.org
Buildings Account for Half of All CO2 Emissions | TreeHugger
Buildings Account for 39% of CO2 emissions in the United States eesi.org
Buildings Account for Half of All CO2 Emissions | TreeHugger
And so we need to be building more efficiently, as the Architects' Journal points out:
New Year’s resolution: RIBA must commit to ethics commission’s recommendations
2 JANUARY, 2019
Now the institute’s Ethics and Sustainable Development Commission has released its final report, resources and leadership must be given to implement its findings, writes Hattie Hartman
Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch, an installation of glacial ice from Greenland at Tate Modern and London’s Bloomberg building, was by far the most visually compelling event timed to coincide with the COP 24 climate talks which concluded in Poland in December. Visitors of all ages peered and poked at the irregular blocks of ice – highly Instagrammable.
COP 24 unleashed a host of announcements and initiatives. One at the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and another at the RIBA pertain directly to AJ readers.
The UKGBC has launched a task force to unravel the long-debated definition of ‘zero carbon’, now reframed as ‘net zero’, for new buildings. Four architects number among the industry heavyweights that make up the 35-strong group. Public consultation will take place in February, and the recommendations, due in spring 2019, could well have a knock-on effect on planning requirements and building regulations.
The report’s ambitious recommendations include upskilling the profession and greater transparency within the RIBA
Equally urgent and tougher to crack is the retrofit agenda. Hopefully, similar initiatives will tackle retrofit soon.
At the RIBA, the institute’s Ethics and Sustainable Development Commission released its final report just before Christmas, approved by RIBA Council last week. Its ambitious recommendations are spot on and are accompanied by a roadmap with specific actions mapped on a one, two and three year timeline. These range from ensuring that architectural education and teaching staff are fit for purpose, to upskilling of the profession through desperately needed CPD and guidance to greater accountability and transparency of the institute.
Commission chair Peter Oborn observes that the report signals the Institute’s profound recognition that the profession must reshape itself to be fit for the future. ‘The RIBA is charting a new course and committing to an action plan,’ he says. The commission recommends that RIBA Council creates a board level director to drive this change.
Highlighting the urgency of the 12-year time horizon projected in the latest IPCC report, Michael Pawlyn of Exploration Architecture says that the profession needs ‘a paradigm shift’. The commission’s report could well kickstart this shift if the Institute commits appropriate leadership and resources to follow through on the recommendations.
Meanwhile Gary Clark, director of sustainability at WilkinsonEyre and newly in post as chair of the RIBA’s Sustainable Futures Group, intends to complete two workstreams initiated by his predecessor Simon Sturgis: updating the green overlay to the Plan of Work (due in summer 2019) and consolidating the changes to the sustainability statements which accompany RIBA awards submissions. Also in the pipeline is an operational guide to handover and commissioning.
Architecture 2030, an American initiative highlighted in the commission’s report as a model for the RIBA to examine for its applicability in the UK, is driving change in the States. It is a voluntary disclosure initiative for tracking operational energy use adopted by the American Institute of Architects in 2009 and is part of a larger initiative led by the AIA’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) which involves extensive online CPD and guidance. Stephen Kieran of KieranTimberlake, an Architecture 2030 signatory, notes, “It’s a marathon, with gradual improvement year on year.’
We also need more trailblazers. The industry sadly lost one such trailblazer last month with the premature death of Neil May MBE, a name which, perhaps tellingly, is not widely known to AJ readers. Neil’s company Natural Building Technologies pioneered the import of many sustainable vapour permeable insulation products from Europe. His passion led him to establish the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance and author numerous publications on ‘responsible retrofit.’ This, in turn, led him to UCL where he founded the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings in 2016.
Neil May will be greatly missed, and his career path and highly collaborative approach is one we can all learn from. Determined incremental change can kickstart a paradigm shift. Education, upskilling, and transparency are good places to start.
New Year’s resolution: RIBA must commit to ethics commission’s recommendations | Opinion | Architects Journal
See also:
Architects ‘crucial’ part of solution, UN climate summit told | News | Architects Journal
98% of new public buildings fail to meet highest energy standard | News | Architects Journal
‘Built environment firms must act now on climate change’ | News | Architects Journal
AJ Architecture Awards 2018: Housing Project of the Year (above £10m) | News | Architects Journal
The shift to the idea of 'net zero' is significant:
Getting to Net Zero: The Green Building Guide | BUILDINGS
Twelve Steps to Affordable Zero Energy Home Construction and Design - Zero Energy Project
A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy (ZNE) building, net-zero energy building (NZEB), net zero building or zero-carbon building is a building with zero net energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site,[1][2] or in other definitions by renewable energy sources elsewhere.[3]
These buildings consequently contribute less overall greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than similar non-ZNE buildings. They do at times consume non-renewable energy and produce greenhouse gases, but at other times reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas production elsewhere by the same amount.
A similar concept approved and implemented by the European Union and other agreeing countries is nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB), with the goal of having all buildings in the region under nZEB standards by 2020.[4]
Zero-energy building - Wikipedia
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Zero-energy building - Wikipedia
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