Challenge 2030 - Net-Zero Energy Commercial Building Initiative
Credible scientists give us 10 years to be well on our way toward global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions in order to avoid catastrophic climate change. Yet there are hundreds of coal-fired power plants currently on the drawing boards in the US. Seventy-six percent (76%) of the energy produced by these plants will go to operate buildings.
Buildings are the major source of demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases (GHG). Slowing the growth rate of GHG emissions and then reversing it over the next ten years is the key to keeping global warming under one degree centigrade (°C) above today's level. It will require immediate action and a concerted global effort.
To accomplish this, Architecture 2030 has issued The 2030 Challenge asking the global architecture and building community to adopt the following targets:
All new buildings, developments and major renovations shall be designed to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.
At a minimum, an equal amount of existing building area shall be renovated annually to meet a fossil fuel, GHG-emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50% of the regional (or country) average for that building type.
The fossil fuel reduction standard for all new buildings and major renovations shall be increased to:
60% in 2010
70% in 2015
80% in 2020
90% in 2025
Carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate).
Adapting a building to the climate is better than adapting the climate to a building. This would be an apt slogan for Bayer MaterialScience’s “EcoCommercial Building” initiative. It reflects the principle of bringing together the best materials, systems and technologies in order to construct a building to suit the climatic conditions at the site in question. read full text from original website
The first project as a result of the Masdar Initiative is a new 6 million square meter sustainable development that uses the traditional planning principals of a walled city, together with existing technologies, to achieve a zero carbon and zero waste community. Masterplanned by Foster + Partners, the initiative has been driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and will be a centre for the development of new ideas for energy production. Masdar responds to the urban identity of Abu Dhabi while offering a sustainable urban blueprint for the future.
The concept of eco-tower "Tour Vivante" aim is to associate agricultural hydroponic production, dwelling and activities in a single and vertical system. This vertical farm would allow to make the city denser meanwhile a greater autonomy could be gained reliance in agricultural plains, reducing the need of transportation between urban and extra-urban territories. The yet unusual superimposition of these programs finally makes it possible to consider new practical and energetic relations between agricultural culture, activity spaces, housing and trade inducing a very strong energy saving. read on...
…The buildings look like a carnival attraction, and might make you dizzy just looking at them. Each of the 59 floors is rotating unevenly around a central concrete core. Wind turbines are stacked horizontally between each floor, so that when exposed to the atmosphere 50 or 100 or 500 feet off the ground, the wind turns the turbines, generating electricity for the buildings’ use—and more.
From the energy point of view, the building is an independent and aesthetic source of alternative energy. Each turbine generates 0.3 megawatts of electricity, so that the building’s 50 total turbines can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year.
Architect David Fisher, well-known for his restoration projects in New York and Italy, uses a revolutionary construction process to reduce costs. Only the central core (which contains the elevators, plumbing and other utilities) is built on site, while each floor is prefabricated in a factory, reducing construction time and maximizing cost-effectiveness and quality control.
This video shows how you can take an ordinary building design and alter it to form a net-zero-energy building - meaning a building that uses no more energy than it produces on an annual basis.
-by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers
Presentation done by Recollective Consulting on Living Challenge, Pharos, and the SEFC Net Zero Building.