News
2030 Challenge
14th April 2009
With the current credit crunch and excessive fossil fuel consumption within the built environment, dcarbon8 welcomes the newly issued 2030 Challenge. The campaign was proposed by Architecture 2030, an independent non-profit environment-focused organization based in the USA. According to the organization, 76% of energy produced by coal-fired power plants within the country goes to operating buildings, making it a crucial area of focus for businesses to curb their emissions.
The 2030 Challenge aims to decrease the high proportion of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through setting three different targets. Primarily, it calls for all new buildings to be designed to consume 50% less GHG-emitting energy as compared to the average regional emissions of a building of the same type. Secondly, this target is to increase by an additional 10% every 5 years starting from 2005/6, so that by 2030, all the newly constructed buildings will be carbon neutral. Thirdly, appreciating that a large proportion of building stock by 2030 will be existing developments, it is advised that the same amount of these, as compared to the new building stock (resultant of retrofitting), should consume on average 50% less GHG-emitting energy.
Architecture 2030 recommends that each organization adopting the Challenge should prepare a plan of action for implementing the initiative’s targets. It calls for organizations to adopt the non-legally binding Challenge and asks that everyone who chooses to adopt it should implement it in all their projects.
These changes are to be accomplished via implementing innovative sustainable design strategies, on-site generation of renewable power and/or purchasing renewable energy and/or renewable energy credits.
Hundreds of well reputed businesses, schools, organizations individuals from all over the world have already signed up to the Challenge. For instance, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a USGBC developed accreditation, is pledging to implement the Challenge. dcarbon8, encourages businesses in the built environment to implement this challenge and realize advantages such as more efficient processes throughout the supply chain, lower costs of compliance and new strategic market opportunities. Such businesses will surely reap advantages over the competitors who lack such vision.