Corporate Responsibility Watch - Building Design and Efficiency

As I’ve previously blogged, buildings account for a staggering percentage of total energy usage the world over, and in the U.S. alone they are responsible for 72% of our electricity consumption—which means they are one of the biggest contributors to climate change and henceforth their construction and design needs to be readdressed.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has set aggressive and ambitious goals for climate change reductions, and a report recently released by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) details the ways in which the efficiency of buildings can be improved 60% by 2050, in order to help meet these targets.

The Energy Efficiency in Buildings – Transforming the Market report analyzed hundreds of millions of existing and new buildings spread across “six markets that produce more than half of the world’s GDP, and almost two-thirds of global primary energy: Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan and the U.S.”; took a market-driven approach to understanding the barriers to lower energy use; and reached out to building industry stakeholders to get a widespread view of the potential improvements in building energy usage from today through 2050.

To achieve IPCC reduction and efficiency goals, the WBCSD claims that “a mix of measures tailored to specific geographies and building subsectors, including increased energy awareness globally, is required for a complete solution. Additional approaches include building energy codes, labeling and reporting mechanisms, appropriate energy prices and carbon costs, investment subsidies, increased and trained workforce capacity, and evolving energy-efficient designs and technologies that use passive and active approaches.”

Visit our website to learn more about the LEED projects we have worked on and how your company can do its part toward green building. Or visit the USGBC and find out how to register your next building project under their LEED system.

PERSONALLY SPEAKING

Historically, efficiency and conservation were not placed alongside the bottom line as important factors to be considered on a project, but the lens through which we now view the potential future of our planet has changed this. Every day we ignore the impact our buildings have upon the environment and continue with business-as-usual pushes us further from a sustainable and bright future. Tackling the issues we face head on and without fear is the only way we can begin to alter the course we have been heading on for too long. Luckily, the ways in which we design and consuct our built environment have progressed dramatically in the last 5 years, and look set to be maximised and capitalized on in an increasing fashion. ~Matt

Matt Kiszka is the LEED and Green Building Initiatives Project Manager for Renewable Choice.