The US building sector faces an uphill battle: how can designers, architects and owners ensure their structures dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions – without compromising on their performance or livability?
The sector is responsible for 40% of US greenhouse gas emissions, and must reach net zero by 2035. Yet it is currently not on track to reach this goal – and time is running out.
Three Challenges to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Despite widespread agreement that the building sector must reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a range of energy saving measures, there are several challenges to overcome:
1. Costs
The reality real estate investors, construction firms and homeowners all face is simple: switching to less environmentally taxing energy sources is likely to be expensive. These costs are a significant barrier for many, especially during a prolonged period of economic uncertainty.
Some research suggests that the number of deep energy retrofits in the U.S. needs to increase threefold in the next two decades if the U.S. wants to meet its decarbonization goals. But without significant subsidies, this will place a heavy financial toll on homeowners – ultimately making it harder for leaders to make a compelling case for individual citizens to take voluntary action.
2. Incentives
Decarbonization is a major undertaking and therefore requires powerful incentives to prompt concerted action. But efforts to introduce such incentives have had limited success thus far.
Take environmental, social and governance (ESG) scores: While they are already influencing investor behavior, there is still no single universal framework. This limits the scores’ capacity to direct lasting, coordinated efforts across the building sector – because different firms are optimizing for different factors.
3. Speed
Recent years have seen significant progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the buildings sector – but the progress is still not fast enough. Overall US emissions are just 7.2% below their 2005 levels at the time of writing, which means the rate at which buildings reduce their emissions will need to accelerate significantly for the country to hit its net-zero pledges.
But this raises the question: what exactly can we do to achieve the dramatic acceleration in decarbonization we collectively require?
Learning From Regulation: What Title 24 Can Teach Us
Many experts point to building performance standards (BPS) as a potential solution to building emissions. These carbon-reducing regulations offer several exciting possibilities, not least that cutting emissions will actually produce significant savings – and could be achieved through targeting changes in just a few key buildings in each location.
However, we believe another approach is worth championing – which is best represented by California’s Title 24 legislation. This is a State-specific set of energy efficiency standards designed to specifically eliminate wasteful energy usage.
These measures are projected to produce $1.5 billion in consumer benefits and reduce 10 million metric tons of greenhouse gases over the next 3 decades. In part, this is because the energy savings in buildings can free space in the grid for other initiatives – which is essential to enable population growth while reducing emissions.
How Certified Professionals Can Support Decarbonization
The process of planning and executing building decarbonization requires a wide range of specialism. A few key disciplines include:
- Building Enclosure Testing (BET): By investing and enhancing the building envelope, NEBB certified BET professionals can identify and help owners eliminate leaks in the fenestration that cause air leakage.
- Testing, Adjusting and Balancing (TAB): HVAC systems are responsible for up to 50% of the average building’s electricity usage. TAB-certified professionals optimize these systems to reduce waste and ensure the building only uses the energy it needs to maintain performance.
- Technical Retro-Commissioning (RCx): Using proven methods to compile and analyze building data, RCx-certified professionals help identify where building performance could be improved and help plan efficient replacement of key systems – enabling a smoother transition to more energy-efficient systems.
Accelerate Decarbonization with NEBB-Certified Experts
For over 50 years, NEBB has been considered the international gold standard in building performance discipline certification. With access to a full spectrum of experts across numerous key disciplines, building owners and designers can ensure their structures are energy efficient and achieve best-in-class performance.
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