Design Renewable Energy into Carbon-Smart Buildings

Architecture and building design must undergo a rapid transformation as a key step toward reducing carbon emissions enough to avoid the catastrophic effects of global warming. That was a central message from the international experts who addressed SOLAR 2006’s plenary Wednesday morning.

“What has seemed too hard becomes what simply must be done,” said Princeton University engineering professor Robert Socolow. Unlike other research fields, he noted, “experts are more worried than lay people” about the effects of uncontrolled carbon emissions.
Earth Day founder and solar pioneer Denis Hayes acknowledged he is sad that “in 2006 we still have to hold a conference linking energy and climate change,” noting it’s already too late to avoid hurricane Katrina and the clones of Katrina , and probably too late to save wild polar bears.

The speakers focused on what can – and must — be done immediately, with Hayes quoting Nike’s slogan: JUST DO IT!

Buildings require 48 percent of U.S. energy consumption today and, because of their relatively long lives, represent a critical area for reducing fossil fuel use, said architect Edward Mazria. By 2035, three-quarters of the built environment in the U.S. will be either new or renovated, he noted.

Mazria’s “2030 challenge” outlines a path for change, calling on all new buildings and developments to be designed to use half the fossil fuel energy they would typically use, with increased reduction standards over time. By 2030, all new buildings should be carbon neutral.

Renewable Energy Access