United States. ASHRAE issued a position paper on the decarbonisation of buildings and its role in mitigating the negative carbon impact of buildings on the environment.
ASHRAE's position paper on building decarbonisation presents the Society's positions and recommendations for achieving emission reductions through renovation of existing buildings and improvements to new building designs.
"The decarbonization of buildings encompasses the entire life cycle of a building, including the design, construction, operation, occupancy and end-of-life of the building," said ASHRAE 2022-23 President Farooq Mehboob, an ASHRAE member. "ASHRAE is at the forefront of accelerating carbon mitigation resulting from energy use in the built environment by providing this roadmap to further our Society's mission of a healthy and sustainable built environment for all."
ASHRAE's position is that the decarbonisation of buildings and their systems should be based on a holistic analysis that includes healthy, safe and comfortable environments, energy efficiency, environmental impacts, sustainability, operational safety and economy.
By 2030, the global built environment must at least halve its 2015 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, so:
* all new buildings are net zero GHG emissions in operation,
* widespread modernisation of the energy efficiency of existing assets is under way, and
* the embodied carbon of the new construction is reduced by at least 40 percent.
Additional positions and recommendations include the following:
* Increased rigor and the application of energy codes are critical to decarbonization.
* The assessment of the full life cycle of the building should be considered in future building codes to reduce built-in and operational GHG emissions related to buildings and their HVAC&R systems.
* Building Performance Standards (BPS) should be considered as a policy tool for the decarbonization of existing buildings.
* Decarbonization policies must address and mitigate impacts on disadvantaged communities and less developed nations.
* The construction of decarbonization strategies and policies must consider healthy, safe and comfortable environments; environmental and social impacts; sustainability; Resilience; and economy
* Promote research and development of heat pump technology.
* Support the development, updating and adoption of relevant standards and guidelines that facilitate the reduction of GHG emissions over the lifetime of new and existing buildings.
* Encourage greater collaboration and the development of standards and guidelines between the energy, transport and construction sectors to improve the secure integration of the building network, data communication and optimisation of energy performance (generation, use and storage).
* Work in partnership with industry to increase the capacity and opportunities of a skilled workforce that supports the decarbonization of buildings.
View the full position paper in ashrae.org/decarb.
"ASHRAE's strength is to provide the industry with practical solutions, guidance and tools to develop science-based approaches to decarbonise the built environment on a global scale," said Kent Peterson, chair of ASHRAE's Building Decarbonisation Task Force (TFBD). "ASHRAE's technical guidance, standards and training have long been the foundation for high-performance buildings and GHG emission reduction strategies, and this position paper will expand our efforts towards a more sustainable future for all."
In addition, registration opens on July 15 for the 2022 International Building Decarbonization Conference, October 5-7 in Athens, Greece. Organized by ASHRAE TFBD and the Hellenic chapter, the conference aims to provide an exchange of ideas to unite the collaboration of North America and Europe in reducing carbon emissions in buildings.
