John Hardy

Edward Mazria, Mazria Inc. USA

Further info re buildings from a well-known architect.

“Unknowingly, the architecture and building community is responsible for almost half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions annually. Globally the percentage is even higher.
I developed a way to look at buildings as a sector of the economy, the way the industrial transportation sectors tracked. And I defined the building sector to consist of what we, as architects, control.
When we design a building – its orientation, massing, fenestration – we set in motion the energy consumption pattern over the life of the structure. We also control what materials buildings are made from. So, in my calculations, I included the energy use of building as well as the embodied energy of construction materials.
When you compare the building industry to the industrial and transportation sectors, you realize that only in the building industry do we have the chance to reverse the pattern of global warming. The industrial sector gets marginally more efficient every year. And the transportation sector is changing rapidly because there’s simply no option – oil is getting more scarce and more expensive. It’s up to us, as members of the design and construction community, to contribute our knowledge and skills toward making buildings as carbon-neutral as possible. If we don’t get a handle on that, we’re going to not be in very good shape in the near future.”

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