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Climate change has become a hot button topic for discussion around the world, with many passionate people pushing forward initiatives to address this issue head on. With the Copenhagen summit, it is clear that passion alone will not solve climate change, given concerns over economics and developing countries. There seems to be an underlying question of what is fair for each country to burden in addressing an admittedly complex issue.
At the Ohio Valley Region AIA conference last November, I had the fortune of hearing Ed Mazria, founder of the Architecture 2030 challenge, speak about the tremendous impact architects and engineers will have on climate change. Mr. Mazria’s key point was that keeping greenhouse gas emissions in check can be most easily achieved by designing new buildings to be more efficient and upgrading existing building stock (150 billion sf of it) significantly. Investment in energy efficiency measures can also help address the country’s stagnant economy by creating demand for building products and a construction industry dying for new work. Reducing energy costs on an individual level frees up income to be spent on other products, further stimulating the economy. While Mr. Mazria’s talk was inspirational, I couldn’t help but think of one major obstacle: energy codes.
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