Page 9 - Green Builder March-April 2021 Issue

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Green Building NEWS

The Latest on Sustainability and Renewable Energy

ANOTHER TOXIC SUMMER?

Wildfire smoke is worse than auto emissions in polluting

the atmosphere. With another fire season on the way,
that’s very bad news.
HERS milestone. More than 3 million homes have
HE MASSIVE PLUMES OF SMOKE generated during wildfires can be more toxic than received a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rating
air pollution caused by vehicle emissions and other sources, according to a study by since 1995, including 1 million over the past three
researchers at the University of California at San Diego. The report, which focuses primarily years. CREDIT: RESNET
T on fires in Southern California but also measures environmental impact throughout the It’s 3 Million
Western U.S., comes as a new wildfire season looms. Fire season is generally from May to November,
depending upon temperatures and level of precipitation.
The UC-San Diego researchers reviewed hospital admissions from 1999 through 2012, and
discovered that wildfire-induced toxic particles resulted in 10 times more hospitalizations for and Counting
respiratory illness than for other forms of pollution. Given that fires have only become more
destructive since the time of the study—six of the largest wildfires on record burned in 2020—the
overall health prognosis isn’t very bright, according to study coauthor Rosana Aguilera. for HERS
Part of the problem is what’s being burned. Due to heavier residential and commercial
development, fires are increasingly burning through homes and infrastructure, creating a toxic
mix of plastics, metals, cleaning chemicals and other unnatural char. The study appears in the Index
journal Nature Communications.
Nearly 25 percent of all new
homes built in 2020 received
the energy efficiency rating.

ORE THAN 3 MILLION homes in the
United States have now been rated
with a Home Energy Rating System
M (HERS) Index Score, a key measure-
ment of a home’s energy efficiency used by build-
ers, utilities, real estate professionals, and gov-
ernment agencies, according to the Residential
Energy Services Network (RESNET).
The 3 million HERS ratings helped contribute to
reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than
49 million tons, the equivalent of taking nearly
9.7 million passenger vehicles off the road for one
year, according to RESNET. It has also improved
the health and comfort of more than 13 million
residents, and saved homeowners more than
$8 billion in energy costs. In 2020, more than
299,000 homes received HERS Index Scores,
including nearly 1 in 4 new homes.
RESNET Executive Director Steven Baden
notes that it took 17 years to reach the 1 million
homes milestone, from 1995 to 2012, and five
more years to reach 2 million. The 3 million mark
Burned out. The historic Glass Mountain Inn in St. Helena, California, was among the 1,555 only required three years, from 2017 to 2020, an
homes, businesses and other structures destroyed during the 67,500-acre Glass Fire last fall. upward trajectory that is “certain to continue,”
CREDIT: AFP
Baden says. GB
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