The New Bottom Line - Building the Change: The 2030 Climate Challenge
Building the Change: The 2030 Climate Challenge
Natural Logic is a website with periodic newsletters and articles on sustainability issues. Their Oct 1st publication focuses on the need to accelerate green building practices. The introduction is provided below along with a link to the full article:
" Ed Mazria presented the opening keynote at West Coast Green in San Francisco September 28, and offered what was probably the most compelling, moving and useful global warming presentation I've heard yet. (No offense, Al, but Ed got more usefully into what to do for high leverage impact.)
'When the US balked at Kyoto,' he explained, 'the stated concern was impact on industry and competitiveness. But US industry has held emissions relatively flat for the last 20 years (part thru efficiency, part thru export of industry and emissions).'
But the lions share of US emissions -- 48% -- and the fastest growing sector is emissions from buildings (about 1/6 of that in their construction, and 5/6 in their operations) The usual energy pies show US energy yse approximately evenly divided between buildings, transportation, industry and commerce. But transportation, industry and commerce all involve buildings, so slicing the pies differently ties nearly half of US energy use to buildings. Moveover, building decisions are long-lived -- They can have impact for decades.
'We are the problem,' Mazria told 7000 building industry professionals, 'and we are the solution.'
The US builds 5 billion square feet of new construction each year, renovates an equivalent amount, and tears down 1.75 billion, in a total building stock of some 275 billion square foot. 'In the next 30 years, we'll take down 52 billion of that, renovate 150 billion, add 150 billion. By 2035, 80% of our built environment will be new or renovated.'
What a huge opportunity to turn the entire building sector around!
So Mazria has posed the 2030 challenge. "
After outlining the elements of the 2030 challenge, the article then has some challenging words for the US Green Building Council:
".....There was faint praise, if any, for the US Green Building Council, home of the LEED™ rating system for green buildings. 'The AIA stepped out ahead of the USGBC, and adopted targets' Mazria noted. 'The GBC done nothing since, but will develop Standard 189 with ASHRAE to set a minimum benchmark. That's bad news, and years from now.'
The AIA has called on USGBC to incorporate minimal GHG reductions into LEED:
Certified: 50%
Silver: 65%
Gold: 80%
Platinum: Carbon neutral
'Ask the GBC to get on this, Mazria ehorted. 'LEED should be leadership; we have to do this tomorrow, not next year. New Mexico is going to require this in state. buildings; ask Calif to do the same. And ask ASHRAE 189 to establish the 50% benchmark"
Read the full article at:
See http://www.natlogic.com/resources/nbl/v15/n03.html
