Archinect - News

COP28 deal agreed amid controversy over ‘phasing out’ of fossil fuels

2023-12-14T11:44:00-05:00

A climate deal has been struck by global leaders at the COP28 UN climate summit in Dubai following days of negotiations. The agreement calls for all countries to move away from using fossil fuels, though stops short of phasing them out. The final text, signed by 200 countries, recognizes a “need for deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.”

The pact calls on countries to “transition away” from fossil fuels for energy systems but not for other sectors such as plastics, transport, or agriculture. At the beginning of the conference, the hosting UAE president had proposed a deal to “phase out” fossil fuels entirely; language explicitly called for by a coalition of over 100 countries. However, an initial draft of the deal removed the reference to “phasing out” fossil fuels, as did the final agreement, leading one delegate representing small island states to claim the final text contained a “litany of loopholes.”

Among the commitments in the deal are a tripling o...

Architecture 2030's new CARE Tool helps measure the carbon reduction of retrofit projects

2023-02-15T14:38:00-05:00

A new metric measuring the amount of carbon reduced in reuse projects is changing the way practitioners of the built environment can quantify the success of retrofit projects of all types and sizes.

Architecture 2030’s new CARE (Carbon Avoided Retrofit Estimator) Tool is a way of providing valuable statistics that show the carbon savings of each project accurately and using a standardized methodology. Its tool was developed by Siegel and Strain Architects principal Larry Strain along with Architecture 2030’s Erin McDade and Goody Clancy’s Lori Ferriss and is already in use at several leading firms nationwide.

CARE Tool works by taking user inputs about energy targets and potential building interventions to estimate operational carbon emissions and embodied carbon emissions in each project.

According to the group: “Outputs are visualized as total embodied and operational em...

Edward Mazria honored with 2021 AIA Gold Medal, Moody Nolan receives AIA Architecture Firm Award

2020-12-08T16:24:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has revealed the recipient of this year's top accolades.

The 2021 AIA Gold Medal goes to architect, educator, and sustainability pioneer Edward Mazria, FAIA, FRAIC. In a statement, the AIA points out that Mazria is being recognized for "his work sounding the alarm on climate change and motivating the profession to take action."

Previously published on Archinect: Architecture 2030's Ed Mazria outlines an environmentally-responsible plan for the architecture and design industries

In 1979, Mazria published the groundbreaking The Passive Solar Energy Book: A Complete Guide to Passive Solar Home, Greenhouse and Building Design and continued to apply these principles in a number of passive solar and highly contextual buildings, such as the Stockebrand Residence, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and Georgia O’Keefe's estate, Sol y Sambra.

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo: Robert Reck © Mazria, Inc.

Mazria helped fou...

Biden economic plan embraces 2030 challenge

2020-07-10T15:48:00-04:00

As Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden moves to set out a concrete policy regime to counter that of President Donald Trump, the Biden campaign's "Unity Task Force" coordinated with supporters of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has announced a slew of progressive policy aims, including a plan to begin decarbonizing the building sector.

Previously published on Archinect: Architecture 2030's Ed Mazria outlines an environmentally-responsible plan for the architecture and design industries

Under the recently published recommendations from the task force, a potential Biden administration would move to guarantee that all new buildings achieve net-zero green house gas emissions by 2030, one of the key goals of the proposed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-backed Green New Deal framework.

Previously on Archinect: "Illustrating the massive scale of America's decarbonization challenge." Courtesy of McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology.

A section of the task force recommendation...

A new tool could make "carbon-aware" material specifications a reality

2019-09-23T18:30:00-04:00

The Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), a coalition made up of over 30 building industry leaders that includes the American Institute of Architects, Perkins and Will architects, Autodesk, the American Institute of Steel Construction, and the American Concrete Institute Foundation, among others, has unveiled a new tool that could help designers better understand the carbon footprints of the building materials they specify.

The so-called EC3 tool is developed as an open-source technology that allows users to see the embodied carbon impacts of materials before they are specified, according to a news release.

The tool is fully customizable and allows for a variety of materials to be highlighted in carbon calculations. Image courtesy of Building Transparency / Carbon Leadership Forum.

According to the Building Transparency website, the tool allows designers to visualize different material scenarios using the embodied carbon emissions of a variety of structural approaches, interior and exteri...

Relocation or Adaptation: Is a 2-Degree Limit for Global Warming Not Enough?

2014-12-15T18:35:00-05:00

...As a practical matter, limiting global warming to no more than 2C seemed like the most ambitious target that could possibly be achieved, since it would require virtually ending fossil fuel emissions within 30 to 40 years... Yet even as the 2C target has become a touchstone for the climate talks, scientific theory and real-world observations have begun to raise serious questions about whether the target is stringent enough."

As is documented in the article, the recent climate talks in Lima ended with an agreement to try to limit the long-term warming of the planet to below 2 degree celsius above the global average temperature at the start of the Industrial Revolution. This limit has been central to talks aimed at mitigating global warming, but, as the author notes, may not be enough. Already, the disastrous and damaging effects of global warming are felt worldwide. Moreover, scientists are realizing they had underestimated the potential rapidity of sea level rise from the melting glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica.

To put this in perspective, in order to remain below the 2 degree threshold, the building sector alone must steadily transition to carbon neutrality by 2030, a radical change in the way architecture and construction currently operate. According to the project Architecture 2030, whose name alone shows the centrality of the 2 degree limit, this could feasibly be accomplished if:

"All new build...

Just Launched: Transformation 2030: A Student Design Challenge

2013-09-16T17:41:00-04:00

Our next Just Launched competition is Autodesk's "Transformation 2030: A Student Design Challenge", in collaboration with Architecture 2030 and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). The Challenge gives architecture and engineering students the chance to use their skills to help transform Hunts Point in New York City's South Bronx, a community that has been dealing with high unemployment rates and has over half of its residents living under the poverty line.

Ed Mazria announces his 2030 Palette design tool

2013-05-16T14:35:00-04:00

The 2030 Palette is an interactive online tool that puts the principles behind low-carbon and resilient built environments at the fingertips of architects, planners and designers worldwide. Our goal is to inform the planning and design process at the point of inspiration. By curating the best information... highly complex ideas are made intuitive and accessible. Guiding principles are presented as individual “Swatches”, which together make up the larger fabric of sustainable built environments.

The site - www.2030palette.org - looks like a very useful resource. Could be useful for designers but even more so for client to get by in when trying "new" strategies.

Can New York City Achieve Carbon Neutrality in Buildings by 2030?

2011-04-20T20:18:18-04:00

Most buildings in New York will undergo renovation over the next twenty years. A number will also get demolished. As well, many building enclosures will soon need replacement, particularly post-WW2 curtain wall buildings. Gut renovations of office spaces take place on a regular basis. There is great opportunity to re-imagine and reduce energy consumption in all these buildings.

Our friend Jacob Slevin talks to Ed Mazria, sustainable architecture activist and founder of Architecture 2030, about changes he envisions for NYC and beyond.