Author: Energy Cost

For over two years, clean indoor air has become increasingly recognized as a vital tool for response and recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the launch of the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, the Biden-Harris administration has mobilized agencies across the federal government to improve indoor air quality through research, innovation and education.

In October, the White House held a first-of-its-kind summit focused on the challenges and opportunities associated with indoor air quality. A key theme throughout the discussion was funding for upgrading outdated building systems and schools. USGBC and other organizations have done extensive research into how schools have managed air quality during the pandemic, highlighting practical solutions and outcomes. The administration also launched an updated Clean Air in Buildings website with a host of resources and information on how businesses and organizations can participate in the Clean Air in Buildings Challenge that kicked off earlier in 2022.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/white-house-releases-new-commitments-cleaner-indoor-air

It’s become increasingly clear, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, that buildings have a profound impact on both the planet and the people who use them. Buildings, where we spend approximately 90% of our lives inside, according to the U.S. EPA, can help make us happier and more productive, as well as improve our well-being. They must also be part of the solution in the fight against climate change. Buildings currently account for 37% of global energy consumption, according to the International Energy Agency, and the U.S. Department of Energy shares that almost a third of that energy is wasted.

Driven by COVID-19 on the one hand, and climate change on the other, building owners, managers and operators are working hard to both support healthier workplaces and advance energy-saving solutions that help meet climate goals. What’s most important is that we do both together. When it comes to deploying building solutions, we cannot separate occupant well-being from planetary health

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/putting-technology-work-healthier-and-more-sustainable-buildings

“Federal funding has given school districts a financial lifeline to make improvements at schools and help reduce the risk of COVID infection. These upgrades can go beyond the pandemic and yield positive results that last far into the future,” said Anisa Heming, director for the USGBC Center of Green Schools. “By investing in school facility upgrades, these schools are creating healthier working and learning environments for staff and students, and we will continue to encourage districts to allocate remaining funds to green building strategies that improve health and operational performance.”

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/new-usgbc-report-finds-school-districts-prioritizing-federal-funds-air-filtration-hvac

More emerging economies increased their use of fossil fuel gases in buildings in 2021. At the same time, global building energy demand increased by around 4% t from 2020 to 2021, to 135 EJ—the largest annual increase in the past 10 years. In addition, CO2 emissions from buildings operations have reached an all-time high of an estimated 10 GtCO2, about a 5% increase from 2020 and 2% higher than the previous peak in 2019. UNEP found that this reflects both the reopening of the global economy and the lack of structural changes to support decarbonization of the building sector during the pandemic. In 2021, the decarbonization level decreased to 8.1 points, from 11.3 in 2020. The Global Buildings Climate Tracker finds that the building sector remains off track to achieve decarbonization by 2050.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/2022-global-status-report-renews-call-decarbonize-building-sector-2050

Clean economy jobs are on the rise. Today’s students have the opportunity to pursue jobs that will advance sustainability, equity, technology and resilience. Today’s teachers are eager to engage students in experiences that will equip them for the first steps of their career journeys. If you’re a high school instructor of architecture, engineering, energy, construction, building trades, environmental science or other STEM fields, you’re likely already including information about green jobs in your coursework.

Earlier this year, USGBC and its partners hosted two successful offerings of a LEED Green Associate exam prep course for teachers, a professional development experience that equips these teachers to designate themselves as leaders in green building knowledge and helps them to prepare their students for a green building career. USGBC and our partners are excited to be able to offer this exam prep training two more times in 2023!

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/gain-leed-credential-better-prepare-your-students-green-careers

Doing business in a sustainable way has been a priority of forward-thinking companies for decades—but in the 2020s, especially for large, highly visible companies, being proactive about having a positive impact and sharing that impact with the public is now essential. Green business is good business, and in the future, financial decisions linked to sustainability goals are likely to be the new normal.

Financing that benefits the environment

The term “green finance” encompasses several forms of funding: incentives to build green; green bonds, or fixed-income financial instruments that raise money for projects to benefit the environment; and green leases, in which tenants commit to, or receive incentives to, participate in energy and water conservation, waste reduction and other sustainable actions.

According to the United Nations, green finance is a subset of sustainable finance. The latter includes social and governance aspects (of “ESG” priorities, closely related to corporate social responsibility), but green finance focuses specifically on environmental goals.

For example, through its Environmental Business Initiative, Bank of America has committed $1 trillion through 2030 to advancing goals like renewable energy; sustainable transportation, water and agriculture; and improved forestry management. Citi has also made a $1 trillion commitment to sustainable finance. Charles Schwab and Co. provides layers of guidance to its clients on getting started with ESG investing. These are just a few of the many banks, investment houses and other private and public financial institutions making green choices a priority.

However, much of the momentum powering the ESG train is the will of individual investors—our values are changing. As reported by J.P. Morgan Chase, “$500 billion flowed into ESG-integrated funds in 2021, contributing to a 55% growth in assets under management in ESG-integrated products.” Individuals increasingly want to support companies and products that have a positive impact on the world around them.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/major-companies-use-green-financing-build-their-leed-portfolios

Building operations can always be fine-tuned for optimal performance, but there’s no way to reduce the embodied carbon of the materials used to construct that building once they are installed. This means that there is a finite window of opportunity to lessen the embodied carbon of a new development using typical operations practices. However, the process is getting easier, as suppliers are now offering more sustainable options, including for the two most carbon-intensive materials in building construction: concrete and steel.

Portland cement fabrication accounts for approximately 8% of anthropogenic greenhouse emissions, due to the fossil fuels burned to heat raw limestone to incredible temperatures, as well as the carbon dioxide that off-gasses during this process. After years of research and development, the concrete industry has begun to offer lower-carbon mixes that replace some of that cement with lower-carbon materials. These products perform as well as traditional mixes, if not better, and often there is no increase to a project’s budget.

My firm, Lendlease, is developing The Reed at Southbank, a 440-residence tower that recently topped out in the South Loop neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. This was our first project to create to meet an embodied carbon reduction target—in this case, 10%. After performing a life cycle cost analysis, we elected to work with our suppliers to reduce the embodied carbon associated with the concrete throughout the project.

Every slab and column in the building uses a proprietary concrete mix procured from McHugh Concrete, which developed the product in partnership with Oremus Material. This lower-carbon alternative substitutes approximately 60% of the Portland cement with ash and slag—manufacturing waste products that would otherwise end up in a landfill.

https://www.usgbc.org/articles/carbon-cutters-reducing-emissions-through-material-selection