Achieving Zero creates framework to lower emissions in the built environment

by sadia_badhon | August 21, 2019 5:21 pm

The Achieving Zero framework provides guidelines to phase out carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the urban built environment by 2050. Image courtesy Achieving Zero[1]
The Achieving Zero framework provides guidelines to phase out carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the urban built environment by 2050.
Image courtesy Achieving Zero

Environmental advocacy group Architecture 2030[2] has released Achieving Zero[3], a ‘how-to’ framework and a set of tools to enable cities and sub-national governments (state, provincial, and regional) to reach emissions reduction targets in the building sector.

According to the group, reaching a 50 per cent carbon emissions reduction in the built environment by 2030, and zero emissions by 2050, is critical to successfully manage climate change.

Achieving Zero provides solutions based on the research and building stock analyses from the Zero Cities Project[4] (a three-year effort to support cities to co-develop and implement roadmaps and policy strategies to achieve a zero-carbon building sector by 2050) for 11 U.S. cities and provides a consistent, targeted emissions reduction framework to follow, customize, and implement.

The actions required to meet emissions reduction targets for the building sector are:

Key strategies for new buildings include:

Strategies for existing buildings are:

To address embodied carbon, the framework suggests enacting prescriptive and performance specifications and policies for low- to carbon-positive infrastructure, buildings, and materials.

Endnotes:
  1. [Image]: https://www.constructionspecifier.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/6b1bd276-9ce7-4805-a018-9b7a8473d565.jpg
  2. Architecture 2030: https://architecture2030.org/
  3. Achieving Zero: http://achieving-zero.org/zero-cities-project/
  4. Zero Cities Project: http://achieving-zero.org/zero-cities-project/
  5. Zero-Net-Carbon: https://architecture2030.org/zero-net-carbon-a-new-definition/

Source URL: https://www.constructioncanada.net/achieving-zero-creates-framework-to-lower-emissions-in-the-built-environment/