News
Guy Battle, founder of dcarbon8, speaks at the New York Academy of Sciences
28th May 2009
Guy Battle, founder of dcarbon8, recently participated in a conference in New York titled ‘Zero Net Energy Buildings: Fiction or Reality’ (April 2009). His talk focused on the work he’s been involved with in the UK and USA, and particularly the role that legislation in the UK has had to play in delivering low energy solutions and sustainable design.
Guy argues that the USA, in comparison to the UK is probably 5 years behind in terms of its legislation and the environmental culture of its consumers. He illustrates this with examples of the Merton Rule – a piece of legislation in the UK that demands that new buildings generate at least 10% of their energy from renewable sources – and the requirement that all buildings have a sustainability statement. None of these are enforced in the USA. With companies being now judged by consumers on their sustainability, Guy points out that documentation and reporting is important; it offers transparency and credibility. This usually takes form, especially in the UK, of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report that includes social, environmental and economic impacts in addition to the carbon footprint.
Next, our attention is drawn to the natural environment of where buildings are constructed. Guy reasons that there is a need to maximise the free energy in the environment, such as solar and wind, thus building design that reflects this is crucial. As a result of this, we would expect buildings in different localities to look dissimilar, which is not what we are seeing now.
Lastly, Guy points out that embodied carbon (a field in which dcarbon8 is an expert) is frequently overlooked when calculating a building’s energy consumption. Embodied carbon associated with constructions contributes at least 40% to the building’s emissions, so if one is not looking at embodied carbon, a zero-carbon building will not be achieved.