GreenSage E-zine 05/2008

The 2030 Blueprint — Solving Climate Change Saves Billions

Five years ago Edward Mazria, architect and founder of Architecture 2030, brought forth the notion that the nation’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter isn’t transportation or industry; it’s the ‘Building Sector’ which is the major source of demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases (GHG).

Further he posited that stabilizing and reversing emissions in this sector is key to keeping future global warming under one degree Celsius (°C) above today’s level.

To accomplish this, and avoid dangerous climate change, Architecture 2030 issued 'The 2030 Challenge’ asking the global architecture and building community to adopt the following targets:
• All new buildings, developments and major renovations be designed to meet a fossil fuel, greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.
• At a minimum, an amount of existing building area equal to that of new construction be renovated annually to meet a fossil fuel, greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.
• The fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings be increased to:
60% in 2010
70% in 2015
80% in 2020
90% in 2025
Carbon-neutral by 2030 (zero fossil-fuel, GHG emitting energy to operate).

This may be accomplished through innovative design strategies, application of renewable technologies and/or the purchase (maximum 20%) of renewable energy.

Last December, the President signed into law a sweeping energy bill that, among other things, handed down the stiffest green-building standards in U.S. government history. The legislation requires federal facilities to eliminate carbon emissions by 2030, regulates home appliances, and offers some financial incentives for sustainable design. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, as it was optimistically called, is the nation’s largest step on energy since the 1970s and the largest step on green building ever.

According to Mazria, “Although difficult, the economic and global warming crises are the motivation we need as a nation to retool our thinking. If we’re smart enough to jump on this opportunity, we will not only solve global warming, we will set the US up for unprecedented economic success.”

Showing how a small investment of only $21.6 billion in the Building Sector would produce 216,000 permanent jobs and save 86.7 Million Metric Tons (MMT) of CO2 in a single year. This same amount invested each year for five years would net over one million permanent jobs and save 433.5 MMT.

The 2030 Blueprint — Solving Climate Change Saves Billions is a roadmap for turning the global warming and economic crises into an historic opportunity. It calls for the US to
i) implement an immediate moratorium on the construction of any new conventional coal plants, and the gradual phasing out of all existing conventional coal plants by 2030 to place an immediate cap on coal plant emissions while allowing time to retrain coal workers for new jobs,
ii) require that all developments using federal funds meet the 2030 Challenge targets to create additional models of building energy efficiency for the marketplace,
iii) upgrade the National Energy Conservation Code Standard to the 2030 Challenge targets for residential and commercial buildings to immediately stabilize and begin reducing energy demand in the Building Sector and
iv) invest $21.6 billion each year for five years in building energy efficiency measures through existing federal programs (i.e. New Markets Tax Credits; Low Income Housing Tax Credits; a five-year extension and increased funding for efficiency in the Energy Policy Act) and new energy efficiency incentives, tax credits and programs to stimulate building construction, reduce annual Building Sector energy consumption by 5 QBtu, reduce annual U.S. CO2 emissions by 433.5 MMT, save consumers $128 billion (which more than covers the cost of this solution) and create more than one million permanent new jobs, and
v) fund and implement a joint labor-management job training program for displaced coal industry jobs based on successful models developed over the past two decades in the tire/rubber, steel, automobile and communications industries.

The study concludes that there is a clear, simple, realistic and achievable solution to addressing climate change with significant economic benefits: building energy efficiency.

Download the report, The 2030 Blueprint — Solving Climate Change Saves Billions

Edward Mazria is currently the senior principal at Mazria Inc. a Santa Fe, New Mexico architecture and planning firm and founder of Architecture2030. Mr. Mazria is also an Environmentalist, Researcher and Author. He has emerged as a particularly compelling voice in the field of architecture urging design professionals to reduce energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in all buildings. According to Mazria, as understanding the human impact on climate change deepens, so too does the understanding that it will mandate rapid and drastic energy consumption reductions within the next 22 years.