The Year of the Carbon/Climate Connection
The theme of this post is 2007 - Year of the Climate/Carbon Connection. Selecting such a topic was fairly simple since The Norwegian Nobel Committee acknowledged the vital importance of the climate challenge by recognizing Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with the Nobel Peace Prize. I am pleased to note that my friend, Ken Andrasko, formerly with the EPA, but recently of the World Bank, was a member of the IPCC.
Elsewhere, in recognition of the need to improve environmental quality, you may know that several cities, counties and states have adopted green building standards for public structures, including most of the nation's largest municipalities; among them New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, DC. But did you also know the public agencies and organizatios going green now number more than 150? This means there will soon be thousands of new and remodeled facilities, fleet vehicles and plants operating more cleanly and efficiently.
A recent Colorado study of 11 projects showed that while deployment of the LEED green building standard entailed a 1-6% premium over conventional construction, these costs were offset in most cases by resulting energy savings, with estimated paybacks of 3 years or less. LEED remains the most recognized standard of green building but there are also simpler assessment tools for projects that wish to be green, such as Green Globes. After all, the point isn't to achieve any particular standard for its own sake; it's to build sensibly and save energy, money, and slow climate - disrupting greenhouse gas emissions.
As 2007 ends, it remains to be seen if Congress and the Whitehouse will agree on an Energy Bill that substantially increases corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards, mandates renewable portfolio standards for utilities and tightens up federal requirements for energy efficient appliances and lighting. However the good news is that state, private and local energy/environment initiatives move ahead regardless of what happens at the federal level.
For example, there may be a long national debate before achieving a workable national carbon emissions strategy based on mandatory caps, but states such as California, municipalities and various consortia have already taken on the issue themselves, adopting carbon emission standards and trading arrangements. At the most basic level, Personal Carbon Trading has been mooted as a way to encourage individuals to take control of energy use. This is an interesting and potentially significant approach, since individual choices account for about 50% of national energy expenditures through residential and personal transportation energy consuming activities.
On the renewable energy side, sales of Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells and panels reached record levels, but prices have not come down appreciably due to global demand and continuing shortages of silicon wafer material comprising most units. And even with continued, and very welcome growth PV will comprise a small fraction of the electrical power portfolio.
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) continue gain market share in specialty lighting for automobiles, camping and hard-to-maintain applications such as traffic signals. But in the mass market Compact Fluorescent lights (CFLs) are cheaper than ever for consumers. A walk down the light bulb isle of your local Home Depot demonstrates that CFLs have made sizeable gains; now taking up about a third of the shelf space. Wal-Mart sells a CFL for under $3.00. Using the EPA's Energy Star CFL calculator one can see that every 60 watt equivalent CFL replacing a conventional bulb saves more than 650 lbs of carbon emissions to the atmosphere. CFLs make excellent economic and environmental sense and like other energy efficiency measures, are the fastest, cheapest and simplest way to address the energy/climate challenge.
Yet, as the Architecture 2030 initiative has noted in a recent ad, the climate will not benefit from all the energy saving measures technologies noted above if the US and many other countries continue to rely on coal as the electrical power feedstock of choice. Coal is the most abundant, but also the dirtiest of fossil fuels, and is in especially wide use in the Eastern part of the US and we simply have to use less of it and when we do, curtail its emissions.
Opportunities
What does this all mean for architects, engineers and designers of products and transportation systems? It suggests that business opportunities abound for energy smart, environmentally friendly structures and technologies. Public awareness of the need for energy saving, climate mitigating strategies is at an all time high. With oil at $100 a barrel, the energy saving message hits everyone's pocket book and encourages innovation.
We've been doing our part this year at E2C2 to advance the energy and environment agenda. The E2C2 website offers more details but here are a few highlights:
· Bringing Photovoltaic power to a park facility in Arlington, Virginia
· Attaining LEED Certification on four projects in Washington, DC and Northern Virginia
· Introducing an energy saving Truck Electrification System to a network of sites in Washington and Oregon
· Teaching green thinking to designers at Washington's Corcoran College of Art and Design.
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