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Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Buildings

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Book cover State of the World

Part of the book series: State of the World ((STWO))

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Abstract

In June 2015, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) moved into its brand new headquarters in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi. The 32,000-square-meter complex, consisting of three interconnected structures, is among the most sustainable buildings in the United Arab Emirates and uses about one-half the water of similar office spaces. Solar thermal units meet three-quarters of hot water demand, rooftop solar panels generate a portion of the electricity, and passive design and smart energy management systems make the structure highly energy-efficient. IRENA’s new headquarters is one of the latest high-profile efforts to make the footprint of buildings—offices, commercial structures, residences, and other types—more in line with what is needed for environmental sustainability.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), “IRENA Opens Doors on New Permanent Headquarters in Masdar City,” press release (Abu Dhabi: June 3, 2015).

  2. 2.

    Navigant Research, “Global Building Stock Database. Commercial and Residential Building Floor Space by Country and Building Type: 2013-2023,” https://www.navigantresearch.com/research/global-building-stock-database.

  3. 3.

    European Union from Alessandro Cesale et al., The Role of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing Providers in the Fair Energy Transition (Brussels: Housing Europe, May 2015); buildings over 50 years old from European Commission, “Buildings,” http://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-efficiency/buildings; United States from Na Zhao, “The Aging Housing Stock,” National Association of Home Builders, August 11, 2015, http://eyeonhousing.org/2015/08/the-aging-housing-stock-2/; New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, “Energy Efficiency,” www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/html/sustainability/energy-efficiency.shtml.

  4. 4.

    Economist Intelligence Unit and Siemens, European Green City Index. Assessing the Environmental Impact of Europe’s Major Cities (Munich: 2009).

  5. 5.

    Mark Roseland, Toward Sustainable Communities. Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments (Gabriola Island, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2012), 196.

  6. 6.

    International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy Efficiency Market Report 2015. Market Trends and Medium-Term Prospects (Paris: 2015).

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Stephanie Vierra, “Green Building Standards and Certification Systems,” Whole Building Design Guide, October 27, 2014, https://www.wbdg.org/resources/gbs.php.

  9. 9.

    Lily Mitchell, “Green Star and NABERS: Learning from the Australian Experience with Green Building Rating Tools,” presentation at the Fifth Urban Research Symposium, Marseille, France, June 28–30, 2009.

  10. 10.

    BREEAM, “What Is BREEAM?” www.breeam.com/about.jsp?id=66, viewed October 20, 2015.

  11. 11.

    U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), “USGBC Announces International Rankings of Top 10 Countries for LEED Green Building,” press release (Washington, DC: July 22, 2015).

  12. 12.

    Karim Elgendy, “Estidama vs BREEAM vs LEED,” Carboun Middle East Sustainable Cities, April 17, 2010, www.carboun.com/sustainable-urbanism/comparing-estidama’s-pearls-rating-method-to-leed-and-breeam/. Table 8–1 based on the following sources: Vierra, “Green Building Standards and Certification Systems”; BREEAM, “What Is BREEAM?”; USGBC, “USGBC Announces International Rankings of Top 10 Countries for LEED Green Building”; Green Globes, “About Green Globes,” www.greenglobes.com/about.asp; Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment, “About GRIHA,” www.grihaindia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73; Institute for Building Efficiency, “Green Building Rating Systems: China,” fact sheet (Milwaukee, WI: September 2013); Business Sweden, “Certifications,” www.business-sweden.se/en/Trade/international-markets/americas/Brazil/Environmental-Technology-Initiative/Green-Building/Green-building-market-overview/Certifications/; Vietnam Green Building Council, “LOTUS Green Building Rating & Classification System,” http://vgbc.org.vn/index.php/pages/lotus-rating-tool; see also websites of the organizations administering each rating system.

  13. 13.

    Jonathan Hiskes, “The Case for Super-ambitious Living Buildings. A Talk with Jason McLennan,” Grist, September 30, 2010; International Living Future Institute, “Bullitt Center,” http://living-future.org/bullitt-center-0; SITES website, www.sustainablesites.org.

  14. 14.

    Roseland, Toward Sustainable Communities, 207–08.

  15. 15.

    Box 8–1 based on the following sources: Mostra Convegno Expocomfort (MCE) Asia, “Asia’s Green Building Industry & Growth,” www.mcexpocomfort-asia.com/About-MCE-Asia/Regional-Industry-Outlook/, viewed August 21, 2015; USGBC, Green Building Economic Impact Study (Washington, DC: September 2015); U.S. Census Bureau, “Annual Value of Construction Put in Place, 2008-2014,” https://www.census.gov/construction/c30/historical_data.html. Table 8–2 from IEA, Energy Efficiency Market Report 2015; China construction market calculated from 2013 data in AECOM, Asia Construction Outlook 2014 (Singapore: 2014). AECOM puts total Chinese construction at $1.78 trillion; excluding infrastructure construction (37 percent of total), building construction comes to $1.12 trillion.

  16. 16.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sustainable Design and Green Building Toolkit for Local Governments (Washington, DC: June 2013).

  17. 17.

    Andy Gouldson et al., Accelerating Low-Carbon Development in the World’s Cities, New Climate Economy Working Paper (Washington, DC: Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, 2015).

  18. 18.

    Justin Gerdes, “Copenhagen’s Ambitious Push to Be Carbon Neutral by 2025,” Yale Environment 360, April 11, 2013.

  19. 19.

    Gabriela Weber de Morais, “Citizens Contributing to Urban Sustainability in Vauban, Germany,” in Mark Swilling et al., City-Level Decoupling: Urban Resource Flows and the Governance of Infrastructure Transitions. Case Studies from Selected Cities, A Report of the Working Group on Cities of the International Resource Panel (Paris: United Nations Environment Programme, 2013), 19–21.

  20. 20.

    San Francisco Department of the Environment, “Green Building,” www.sfenvironment.org/buildings-environments/green-building, viewed September 21, 2015.

  21. 21.

    C40 Cities, “Case Study: Seoul’s Building Retrofit Program,” December 2014, www.c40.org/case_studies/seoul-s-building-retrofit-program.

  22. 22.

    Tokyo Metropolitan Government and C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, “Chapter 4: Experiences from Frontrunner Cities,” in Urban Efficiency: A Global Survey of Building Energy Efficiency Policies in Cities (Tokyo and New York: 2014).

  23. 23.

    Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Renewables 2015 Global Status Report (Paris: 2015), 97; Bärbel Epp, “China: No Sales Permit Without Solar,” SolarThermalWorld.org, August 21, 2014; Rizhao from REN21, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, and ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability, Global Status Report on Local Renewable Energy Policies (Paris: 2011), 46.

  24. 24.

    ICLEI, Barcelona, Spain. Using Solar Energy – Supporting Community Self Sufficiency, ICLEI Case Studies 173 (Bonn: December 2014).

  25. 25.

    Ibid.

  26. 26.

    ICLEI and IRENA, “São Paulo, Brazil. Local Government Regulation: Ordinances and Laws to Promote Renewable Energy” (Abu Dhabi: 2013); Associação Brasileira de Refrigeração, Air Condicionado, Ventilação e Aquecimento (ABRAVA), “Relatório de Pesquisa. Produção de Coletores Solares para Aquecimento de Água e Reservatórios Térmicos no Brasil. Ano de 2014” (Brasilia: Departamento Nacional de Aquecimento Solar, May 2015).

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    Roseland, Toward Sustainable Communities, 205–06; USGBC, World Green Building Council (WGBC), and C40 Cities, Green Building City Market Briefs (Washington, DC: February 2015).

  29. 29.

    International Labour Organization (ILO), Sustainable Development, Decent Work and Green Jobs (Geneva: 2013); Vanessa Kriele, “Brazil Offers New Green Building Credit Terms,” SolarThermalWorld.org, September 29, 2015.

  30. 30.

    USGBC, WGBC, and C40 Cities, Green Building City Market Briefs.

  31. 31.

    Johannesburg from ILO, Working Towards Sustainable Development (Geneva: 2012); Natalie Mayer, “Energy-Efficient Housing Upgrades for the Poor in Cape Town, South Africa,” in Swilling et al., City-Level Decoupling, 74–76; Holle Linnea Wlokas and Charlotte Ellis, Local Employment Through the Low-pressure Solar Water Heater Roll-out in South Africa (Cape Town: Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town, 2013).

  32. 32.

    Fuel poverty from Cesale et al., The Role of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing Providers in the Fair Energy Transition; European Federation of Public, Cooperative and Social Housing from Housing Europe, “About Us,” www.housingeurope.eu/section-37/about-us.

  33. 33.

    “E3SoHo Final European Workshop: ICT-enabled Energy Efficiency in European Social Housing,” www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/events/E3SoHo-Final-European-Workshop-ICT-enabled-Energy-Efficiency-in-European-­Social-Housing-; ENCERTICUS, “ESESH: Saving Energy in Social Housing with ICT,” http://med-encerticus.eu/it/link/esesh-saving-energy-in-social-housing-with-ict.asp.

  34. 34.

    U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, “Cool Roofs Are Ready to Save Energy, Cool Urban Heat Islands, and Help Slow Global Warming,” fact sheet (Washington, DC: undated).

  35. 35.

    Laura Wisland, “How Many Homes Have Rooftop Solar? The Number Is Growing…,” The Equation (Union of Concerned Scientists blog), September 4, 2014.

  36. 36.

    Table 8–3 from International Green Roof Association (IGRA), “Green Roof Types,” www.igra-world.com/types_of_green_roofs/.

  37. 37.

    “Why don’t all public buildings have green roofs? Or all large private buildings (e.g. businesses)? Would this be a good idea? What would it take to make it happen and to make it worthwhile?” TheNatureofCities.com, August 12, 2015.

  38. 38.

    Wolfgang Ansel and Roland Appl, Green Roof Policies – An International Review of Current Practices and Future Trends (Nürtingen, Germany: IGRA, 2015).

  39. 39.

    Dorthe Rømø, “Green Roofs Worldwide,” PowerPoint presentation (Copenhagen: 2012), www.scp-knowledge.eu/sites/default/files/Rømø%202012%20Green%20roofs%20worldwide_0.pdf; more than 80 cities from Greenroofs.com, “Industry Support,” www.greenroofs.com/Greenroofs101/industry_support.htm, viewed September 21, 2015; Stuttgart from IGRA, Green Roof News, no. 2 (2015): 11, and from Rømø, “Green Roofs Worldwide.”

  40. 40.

    “France Decrees New Rooftops Must Be Covered in Plants or Solar Panels,” Agence France-Presse, March 19, 2015; Hidalgo from IGRA, Green Roof News, 3.

  41. 41.

    C40 Cities, “Case Study: Nature Conservation Ordinance Is Greening Tokyo’s Buildings,” March 18, 2015, www.c40.org/case_studies/nature-conservation-ordinance-is-greening-tokyo-s-buildings.

  42. 42.

    City Planning Division, Toronto, “Green Roofs,” http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=3a7a036318061410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD; Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, 2014 Annual Green Roof Industry Survey (Toronto: May 2015).

  43. 43.

    USGBC, WGBC, and C40 Cities, Green Building City Market Briefs.

  44. 44.

    Passive House Institute, “Passive House Requirements,” http://passiv.de/en/02_informations/02_passive-house-requirements/02_passive-house-requirements.htm.

  45. 45.

    International Passive House Association, “Passive House Legislation,” www.passivehouse-international.org/index.php?page_id=176; Munich from REN21, Renewables 2015 Global Status Report.

  46. 46.

    Box 8–2 from Marie-Pierre Establie D’Argencé, Sylvaine Herold, and Henri Le Marois, “Lessons from the Project ‘Employment Centres and Sustainable Development’ in France,” in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), Greener Skills and Jobs, OECD Green Growth Studies (Paris: 2014).

  47. 47.

    USGBC, WGBC, and C40 Cities, Green Building City Market Briefs.

  48. 48.

    Rachel Young, “Global Approaches: A Comparison of Building Energy Codes in 15 Countries,” in American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Proceedings 2014 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (Washington, DC: 2014).

  49. 49.

    Online Code Environment & Advocacy Network, “Code Status: International Non-Residential,” http://energycodesocean.org/code-status-international-non-residential.

  50. 50.

    European Commission, “Buildings”; Concerted Action Energy Performance of Buildings website, www.epbd-ca.eu.

  51. 51.

    Coalition for Energy Savings, Implementing the EU Energy Efficiency Directive: Analysis of Member States Plans to Implement Article 5 (Brussels: May 2015).

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  1. Michael Renner
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Renner, M. (2016). Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Buildings. In: State of the World. State of the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-756-8_9

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