Page 33 - Green Builder Nov-Dec 2021 Issue

THE STATE OF
SUSTAINABLE

BUILDING 2022

Accelerating Decarbonization

It’s been documented through numerous studies, conferences, white papers
and even fund raisers that the world has until roughly 2050 to change its global
greenhouse gas emission habits or begin to see permanent environmental COGNITION survey: Why would
damage. The United States is currently part of the Paris Agreement, which
calls for voluntary sustainability efforts by participating nations to help them you live in a net zero home?
reach carbon neutral status and keep global warming to less than 1.5 degrees
Celsius within 30 years from now.
According to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine,
there are five main technology-driven goals that the United States must meet
by 2030 to eventually hold up its end of the Agreement 20 years later:
I’m interested in the
1. Produce carbon-free electricity. economic payback
The nation needs to double the share of electricity generated by non-carbon- I have to live in a net and cost savings
emitting sources to at least 75 percent by 2030. This will require record-setting zero home because of
codes and mandates
deployment of solar and wind technologies, scaling back coal and some gas-fired
power plants, and preserving operating nuclear plants and hydroelectric facilities
where possible.
I think
2. Invest in energy efficiency and productivity. renewable I want to contribute
energy is
By 2030, total energy use by new buildings should be reduced by 50 percent. cool to emissions
In existing buildings, energy used for space conditioning and plug-in devices reductions
I want a healthier
should be lowered every year to achieve a 30 percent reduction by 2030. home with improved
Goals for industrial energy productivity (dollars of economic output per energy air quality
consumed) should increase each year.

3. Plan, permit and build critical infrastructure.
By 2030, the nation should increase overall electrical transmission capacity by
approximately 40 percent in order to better distribute high quality and low-cost
wind and solar power from where it is generated to where it can be used across
the country. The nation should also accelerate the build-out of the electric vehicle
recharging network and initiate a national CO2 capture, transport, and disposal
network to ensure that CO2 can be removed from point sources across the country.

4. Electrify energy services in transportation, buildings, and industry.
By 2030, the nation should aim for 50 percent of new vehicle sales across all Top 4 greenhouse
classes to be zero-emission vehicles. The U.S. should replace 20 percent or 4.6 metric
more of fossil fuel furnaces with electric heat pumps in buildings and initiate gasses emitted by tons of carbon
policies so that new construction is all electric except in the coldest climate human activities:
zones. Where industrial processes cannot be fully electrified, they should dioxide are
begin the transition to low-carbon heat sources. Carbon dioxide released annually
Methane by a typical car
5. Expand the innovation toolkit.
The nation should triple federal investment in clean energy research, Nitrous oxide engine
development, and demonstration (RD&D) to provide new technology options, Fluorinated gases
reduce costs for existing options, and better understand how to manage a
socially just energy transition.

www.greenbuildermedia.com November/December 2021 GREEN BUILDER 31