Smart Cities Report-Climate Change

8/3/2019 Smart Cities Report-Climate Change

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BEST PRACTICES Climate change

Buildings are underplayed in terms of their contribution to emissions with nearly 40 percent ofUS emissions attributable to buildings compared to just 3 percent for four-wheel drive vehicles.Ron Dem o out nes ow we must c a u ngs to re uce em ss ons an w y c ang ng t eoccupants’ behaviour is key to tackling climate change.

Smart cities start with

smart buildings

Buildings are responsible for 79 percent of New York’s carbon footprint P hoto © herMan BrinkMan

December 2009-January 2010



December 2009-January 2010 5

need air-conditioning, and it radiates away the

expensively generated heat in winter. In energy

efciency terms, they are a disaster.

We cannot knock all these old buildings

down and rebuild them to LEED specica-

tions. It would cost trillions of dollars and

create an env ronmenta n g tmare. So weare go ng to ave to t erma y so ate t em –

y attac ng a ayer o c a ng t at w pro-

v e an nsu at ng arr er e tween t e u -

ngs’ nter ors an t e e ements. We nee to

g ve t em a new s n.

T s ‘res nn ng’ can actua y ave a

num er o ene ts es es nsu at on. T e

gap etween t e new s n an t e o wa s

cou e use to carry t e p p ng, uct ng an

ca ng or retro tt ng t e g t ng an a r-

conditioning. This would make the retrot-

ting process much quicker and cheaper. The

cladding itself could generate energy if it was

made of photovoltaic cells. And nally, if we

pay attention to the aesthetics of the cladding

materials, the new skins could be used to give

our cities, and particularly the vast swathes

of utilitarian post-war apartment blocks that

blight many skylines, a much needed facelift.

etrotting on its own can reduce build-

ing emissions by around 25 percent, but

combined with reskinning it can achieve 70

percent or more. Now we are getting much

closer to our target of an 80 percent reduc-

tion in carbon.

The 2009 Copenhagen climate

ummit has made it clear that we

equire urgent action on climate

change. Scientists calculate that we need to

sta ze t e concentrat on o car on ox en t e atmosp ere at no more t an 350 parts

per m on (ppm) to prevent runaway g o a

warm ng an ts potent a y catastrop c m-

pact on our c v zat on an t e natura wor

as we now t. We are a rea y at 390ppm, an

a ng to t s at roug y two ppm a year.

n ot er wor s, we not on y ave to a t t e

ncrease n g o a car on em ss ons, we ave

to turn t e process aroun , an ast. We ave

to reduce global carbon emissions by 80 per-

cen or more.

This will take an enormous effort on many

fronts. When we look at the major sources of

carbon emissions and where the efforts are

currently directed, there is one area where we

have scarcely scratched the surface, and that

is our buildings.

uildings are responsible for nearly 40

percent of energy consumption and carbon

dioxide emissions in the US. Operating them

consumes over 70 percent of all electricity

generated in the region. The emissions rate is

most intense in cities, with buildings respon-

sible for 79 percent of New York’s carbon

footprint, 73 percent of Hong Kong’s, and 52percent of London’s carbon footprint. To put

this in perspective, four-wheel drive vehicles

count or ust 3 percent o em ss ons n nort

Amer ca.

T s comes as news to many peop e, nc u

ng env ronmenta sts. Bu ngs o not m

me ate y come to m n w en peop e t n o

car on v a ns. T e reason s t at unt recent y

we never measure t ngs e t e car on em s

s ons o u ngs, or we we certa n y never

aggregate t e measurements n any mean ng

u way. But once we now t s n ormat on we

cannot ignore it. If we are serious about tack

ling climate change, we have to do something

about our buildings.

Retroftting is not enough

So far, the focus has been on new buildings.

Hence we have the Leadership in Energy

and Environmental Design (LEED) standard

in north America, PassivHaus in Germany,

Building Research Establishment Environ-

mental Assessment Method (BREEAM) in the

United Kingdom and others. These standards

are important. They are helping create a new

BEST PRACTICESClimate change

Dr. Ron Dembo is the founder and CEO of Zero-footprint, an organization dedicated to a massreduction in global environmental impact

P hoto Z rofootPrint

generation of buildings with the potential for

ignicant energy savings.

I use the word “potential” deliberately, be-

ause it turns out that many of these build-

ngs are not e ver ng t e prom se car one uct ons. T s s ecause a t oug t e

n rastructure o t e u ng as een a -

resse , t e cu ture o use as not – ut more

n t s ater.

On y a t ny proport on o our u ngs are

ew an meet mo ern energy e c ency rat

ngs. Most o our u ngs are not on y o ,

t ey are e y to e w t us or a ong t me

yet. For examp e, over 50 percent o non-

esidential buildings in England and Wales

were built before World War II. Most non-

esidential buildings built anywhere since

then are reinforced concrete structures with

n expected life of 60 years or more. This

presents us with a massive problem. We have

to somehow reduce the carbon emissions of

lmost our entire building stock. We have to

etrot millions of buildings with energy ef

ciency measures. You can get a sense of the

cale of the challenge if you go to the top of

the Rockefeller Centre and look down the

venues of New York. We have to deal with

ll those buildings, keeping in mind that New

York is just one city.

We have some ideas about how we need totackle the problem. We know we need to in-

ulate and draught proof. We know we need

to t ow energy g t ng an more e c ent

eat ng an coo ng systems. A num er o

uc pro ects are a rea y un er way, nc u -

ng a USD 175 m on programme n Was -

ngton to retro t 400 government an pr

vate u ngs. But t ere are two pro ems

w t t s approac . T e Was ngton pro-

gramme s a m ng or 25 percent energy e -

c ency ga ns. T s s a ong way rom t e 0

percent re uct ons we nee . T e ot er ssue

is that with many of our older buildings it is

the structure itself that is the problem.

Re-skin the tower blocks

any high-rise buildings and tower block

partments were designed and constructed

with little thought for energy efciency and with

fairly rudimentary understanding of building

nvelopes. Their outer walls and often their in

er cores are reinforced concrete. They have

o thermal barrier between their interiors and

the outside weather. Their concrete structure

aptures the heat in summer, so the buildings



6 December 2009-January 2010

T ere s ev ence to s ow t at ust e tt ng

peop e now t e r energy consumpt on n

more eta , c anges t e r e av our. A re-

cent project in North Carolina using smart

metre and networking technology demon-

strated that just by making energy consump-

tion continuously visible to householders and

allowing them to make simple adjustments,

consumption fell on average by 15 percent,

and up to 40 percent in some cases.

There is also much evidence to show that

people respond better to relative measures

rather than absolutes. If instead of just

knowing I consume XkWh of electricity a

year, I know that my consumption is twice

that of my neighbours (when converted to

a common unit like kWh m2 yr that takes

into account house size and allows the com-

parison of like for like) I am more likely to

o somet ng a out my e ectr c ty use. T e

We a rea y now ow to o some o t s.

A number of reskinning projects have already

been carried out, although they usually address

only one or two of the issues, such as the aes

thetics or protection of deteriorating surfaces.

Even where we’ve done it all, it has just been

for single buildings, but we need to apply these

methods to whole cities. That is why Zerofoot

print launched the ZEROprize (see box).

This is just a rst step. We can make the in

frastructure of buildings zero carbon, but this

will be to no avail unless we simultaneously

change the culture of their use.

Don’t forget the lights

The Hearst Tower, a 46-storey skyscraper near

Columbus Circle in New York completed in

2006, is certied LEED Gold. As its top rating

BEST PRACTICES Climate change

uggests, its designers went to great lengths to

ake the building energy efcient and envi

onmentally friendly, including the use of low-

mittance glass and high efciency heating,

vent at on an coo ng (HVAC) systems.But w en u ng energy consu tant Hen-

y G or went y at 2am on Ju y2 200 e

aw t e Hearst Tower t up e a C r stmas

tree. For a ts goo ntent ons, t e u ng

was an energy og. W at s more, w en G -

or oo e nto LEED u ngs n genera

e oun t at many actua y per orme worse

t an compara e u ngs w t no rat ngs.

T s s crazy, an g ven t e urgency o our en-

v ronmenta ssues, we ust cannot a or t.

The problem, says Gifford, is that stand

rds such as LEED only predict how a building

ight perform, and do not measure how they

ctually perform. And this is down to their cul-

ture of use.

If we are to cut the emissions from build-

ngs, old or new, by any signicant amount

we have to change the way people inside them

behave. How can we do this? Well, rst we

have to ask ourselves why the occupants of a

building can boast about their LEED certi

ation and then leave the lights on all night?

The answer is that the energy we consume

nd the carbon we produce is invisible.

While the occupants can see the ratings ward plaque on the wall as they arrive at the

building every morning, they cannot see any

easure o t e u ng’s actua per ormance

n t e r own energy use. So t e rst t ng

we ave to o s ma e t e nv s e v s e.

Measure energy use and display it

We a rea y ave t e a so ute energy use

easure o u ngs. It s t e r mont y ut

ty s. But very ew peop e see t em. An

ven we cou , t e cru e gures wou not

ay anyt ng a out w et er t e u ng was

performing well for its type or not.

Therefore, we need to take these measures

nd convert them into something meaning

ful. We suggest converting them to kilowatt-

hours per square metre per year (kWh m2

yr). (In fact we suggest three measures: en-

rgy as kWh m yr, carbon as kilograms per

quare metre per year, and water as cubic

etres per square metre per year to give the

full environmental footprint of the build

ng). Once we convert to a common un t, we

an then compare one building with another

n a mean ng u way.

T e ZEROpr ze o USD 10 m on,the largest architectural prize in the

world, will be awarded to the design

team a e to ta e an o er concrete

high-rise structure and, using re-

skinning along with other retrotting

tec no og es, re uce ts car on, water,

an energy ootpr nt to net zero w e

maintaining the highest architectural

design standards. The ZEROprize,

e t e pr zes or space g t, genom-

ics and other endeavours, is modelled

on the Orteig Prize offered for the rst

non-stop g t rom New Yor to Par s

and won by Charles Lindbergh in 1927.

These prizes have proved a highly ef

ect ve way o un oc ng t e creat ve

ngenu ty o eng neers an nventors,

and seeding signicant investment in

the solution of difcult problems. The

more recent USD 10 m on Ansar X

Prize for private spaceight generated

USD 100 million of investment. Ze-

ro ootpr nt opes t at t e ZEROpr ze

will generate the interest and invest-

ment that will result in cost-effective,

rep ca e, sca a e, energy-e c ent re-

s nn ng mater a s an met o o og es which can be applied to a large number

of buildings across the globe, and which

w ena e us to eg n tac ng t e uge

carbon footprint of buildings.

The ZEROprize



December 2009-January 2010 7

same app es to u ngs. I I now t at

t e o ce oc I wor n consumes ou e

t e energy o ts ne g ours I m g t start

to think about how I behave with respect to

lighting by turning my computer off at night.

Or if I walk into my bank and see a display,

which shows me that it is an energy hog, I

might start asking questions and demanding

some action.

We suggest that as well as giving build

ings an energy rating plaque, we need to

give them an energy performance display.

For this we recommend taking a leaf out of

the book of the car industry and give them

something like the Environmental Protec

tion Agency (EPA) fuel consumption sticker

that you see on cars in the United States. If

every building had to display an energy per

formance sticker we could start to develop

some benchmarks. We could compare all

m ar u ngs n a c ty – say o ce oc s,

r sc oo s or apartment oc s – an ent -

y t e most green an t e worst per orm ng.

T e EPA ue consumpt on rat ngs or cars

ot on y n orm car uyers, t ey a so serve as

po cy nstrument or government. To m-

prove the overall fuel performance of cars,

the US government simply resets the average

fuel consumption that a manufacturer’s eet

f cars must meet, as President Obama did

ecently when he raised the US eet average

for cars from 9.4 litres per 100 kilometres to

6.7 litres per 100 kilometres by 2016. If build-

ings had similar energy consumption stick-

rs, governments could set targets for build-

ing performance simply by raising the energy

onsumption benchmarks.

The introduction of EPA fuel consumption

atings in 1974 sparked a revolution in car

esign. Thirty years later, the Honda Civic,

BEST PRACTICESClimate change

or examp e, was 100 t mes ess po ut ng.

Car manu acturers ac eve t s y ma ng

t e r ve c es smart. T ey tte t em w t

sensors, microprocessors and algorithms to

optimise their performance. And they feed

all the information back to the driver through

the dashboard. Most buildings built today

are not much more sophisticated than those

built 30 years ago. The gap between the old

walls and the new skin on retrotted build-

ings could carry the wiring to make our build-

ings smart. If we made our buildings smarter

and fed the information back to the building

users, as well as improved their thermal per-

formance, we might be able to reduce their

pollution one hundred fold as well.

That really would be a revolution in build-

ing performance, and would make a signi-

cant contribution to the struggle against cli-

mate change.u

Retroftting needs to be combined with a change in human culture to reduce emissions P hoto M arc M SS

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Smart Cities Report-Climate Change