Promote green buildings for biggest, easiest cuts in North American CO2 emissions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pubnews.php?start=75

Public release date: 13-Mar-2008
Contact: Eduardo Viadas
eviadas@cec.org
514-350-4331
Commission for Environmental Cooperation

Buildings responsible for over one-third of continent's CO2 emissions; Report prescribes policies to slash buildings' energy use

Promoting the green design, construction, renovation and operation of buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change more deeply, quickly and cheaply than any other available measure, according to a new report issued by the trinational Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC).

North America’s buildings cause the annual release of more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere, about 35 percent of the continent’s total. The report says rapid market uptake of currently available and emerging advanced energy-saving technologies could result in over 1,700 fewer megatons of CO2 emissions in 2030, compared to projected emissions that year following a business-as-usual approach. A cut of that size would nearly equal the CO2 emitted by the entire US transportation sector in 2000.

It is common now for more advanced green buildings to routinely reduce energy usage by 30, 40, or even 50 percent over conventional buildings, with the most efficient buildings now performing more than 70 percent better than conventional properties, according to the report.