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Thoughts on Green Building Retrofits - 10:56 AM
How to get better buildings and reduce carbon emissions
Dave LeBlanc at The Globe and Mail recently wrote an interesting article on the arguments for preserving old buildings, and how buyers and building owners can keep this top of mind when considering what to do with their next purchase or sale. Of course, there are many highly compelling reasons for preserving existing homes and buildings as we’ve covered in the past:
- 80pct of the buildings that will be standing in the UK in 2050 have already been constructed.
- Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings can pay off big-time, garnering owners like those of the Empire State Building savings around 38% or $4.4 million annually.
- Retrofitting existing buildings for energy efficiently results in higher tenant satisfaction and increased occupancy rates.
Perhaps most importantly, when considering embodied carbon, the greenest building is often the one that has already been built. The energy that goes into demolishing and old building and recreating a new building from scratch (including the many building materials) is often responsible for a significant portion of the carbon emissions over a building’s lifetime. Therefore, if we can reuse the existing building structure, we can significantly reduce the carbon emissions related to a project.
In the spirit of preserving the embodied energy of existing buildings, LeBlanc makes several suggestions for tuning your perspective before deciding to demolish an existing structure. These should get you thinking about your next building sale or purchase with historicity and the environment in mind. It’s a great read.
