The Design Firm Making Net-Zero Emissions Buildings a Reality
Date Posted: December 19, 2024
Posted In: Discussion,
From TIME Magazine: This year, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Interior Business Center moved into a new office space in Denver. Building 48 is part of a sprawling complex of government service buildings, the largest concentration of federal agencies outside of Washington D.C. The building has been repurposed several times; it was previously a World War II munitions plant and most recently an aging National Archives and Records Administration warehouse. The transition will not just change the office location, it is also an important upgrade: the building operates as a net-zero energy facility and both the structure itself and the area around it will have some of the industry’s highest sustainability certifications.
For now, these kinds of net-zero energy buildings are the exception rather than the norm. But the design firm behind Building 48 is hoping to change that. “Architects have a big impact on the planet,” says CannonDesign’s sustainability director, Eric Corey Freed. “Can we build in such a way that the more buildings we build, the better off we are, as opposed to what we have now, which is almost the exact opposite?”
Globally, the building sector is responsible for almost 40% of energy consumption and energy-related emissions, 50% of resource consumption, and is expected to double its total footprint by 2060 as demand increases. Designing and constructing buildings to be net zero and use fewer resources is one of the key challenges to decarbonizing our economy.
The industry has started to make some progress in that area. For example the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, signed by over 165 companies globally, sets a 2030 deadline for existing buildings to reduce their energy consumption and eliminate emissions from energy and refrigerants. It also requires that new developments and major renovations ensure buildings become highly efficient, powered by renewables, and maximize overall carbon emission reductions. CannonDesign signed this commitment in 2022, and has internally committed to achieving net-zero operational carbon for all its own assets by 2030.