Sustainable Building Design and Climate Change
Architectural Responses to the Environment and Global Warming
Aug 16, 2009
What’s the most effective way to avert climate change? Award-winning architect Edward Mazria has an answer that is good for the economy, puts the unemployed back to work and rehabilitates building stock. The solution: Green buildings.
Climate change is an energy problem. Fossil fuels are used to generate energy and their consumption in turn contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. The building sector is the single highest consumer of energy, and hence the largest contributor to green house gas emissions.
In the US, 50 percent of energy use is in buildings: 42 percent goes into operating buildings, and 8 percent into embodied energy, or the materials to erect them. The Canadian figures are 33 percent and 8 percent respectively, for a total of 41 percent of total energy use.
Architecture 2030: A Manifesto for Change
Architecture2030 is an environmental advocacy group founded in 2003 by Mazria to address the building sector’s fossil fuel consumption. By encouraging dialogue between design professionals, government and those involved in the building sector, Architecture2030 is finding solutions to the problem of global warming.
At its founding the organization issued a challenge to the building industry: In all new buildings and major renovations, reduce energy consumption by 50 percent compared to regional or national averages. This action would level out carbon dioxide emissions immediately.
Mazria has also proposed that an amount of existing building area equal to that of new construction be renovated annually to meet an energy consumption performance standard of 50 percent of the regional (or country) average for any building type.
To reach carbon neutrality by 2030, Architecture2030 has challenged designers and builders to reduce fossil fuel use for all new buildings by:
- 60% in 2010
- 70% in 2015
- 80% in 2020
- 90% in 2025
Strategies for Meeting Sustainability Targets
Mazria offers three avenues for reducing fossil fuel use in buildings.
- “Design out as much as you can.” Design strategies begin with reducing the physical footprint of buildings, and where possible, renovating existing stock rather than building new.
- Add technology. Unlike passive design strategies, technology represents a cost. The initial expense of technologies like photovoltaic systems and geothermal heat is often recaptured within the first three to five years of a building’s operations.
- Buy renewable energy to reduce consumption of other forms of energy by as much as 20 percent. Avoid the use of fossil fuels, in particular electricity produced by burning coal.
The Mount Airy Library in North Carolina, designed by Mazria in the 1980’s, is a good example of the application of passive design strategies. It reduced energy consumption by 80 percent with day lighting techniques and passive solar design.
Policy Initiatives to Achieve Energy Efficiency and Green House Gas Reductions
Governments in Canada and the US have been slow to amend building codes to promote a higher standard of sustainability. New federal legislation in the US will require a 30 percent reduction to building code standards guiding energy use. Canada will have to develop a new code that is 45 percent below current standards to meet the Architecture2030 challenge.
Mazria’s other proposals include performance-based codes and reach codes. The former would require buildings to perform to a certain level, but leave designers free to choose how that performance was achieved. Reach codes are incentive-based voluntary codes that encourage designers to create buildings that exceed actual code specifications for energy efficiency.
Mazria has left his professional practice to devote himself to advocacy work with Architecture2030. His goal is to convince governments, industry and other designers to share his convictions and build a greener world. Let's hope he is successful.
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