Designing, Building, Retrofitting and Running Commercial Spaces for a Low-Carbon Future
An initiative by the Urban Green Council dubbed as HQ2050 aims to address one of the city’s most compelling building challenges that is to build commercial spaces that is fit for a low-carbon future since we realize that these commercial spaces take up a quarter of the responsibility for New York’s total carbon emission.
At a council’s conference it was noted that commercial structures make up around 15% of the floor area citywide and as we said, about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions come from these buildings. Although there is a 12% decrease in the emissions from 2005, there is still a lot to accomplish if we are to reach the targeted goal of 80% by 2050.
3 Different Approaches for Sustainability
1. Developing The Next-Gen Retrofit
Perhaps one of the greatest challenge facing development of sustainable buildings will be the existing buildings themselves and how we can redesign or redevelop the buildings to adapt to the changes, but various design features aligned with saving energy like LED installations and acrylic window inserts to name a few can help lower load and save upto 50% of energy use.
2. Owners, Tenant, Managers Alignment
With tenants using as much as 60% of energy from a commercial building, it will take a united effort from both managers/landlords and tenants to align with the goals of HQ2050.
It can be challenging but once in agreement the goal can be quite achievable.
3. Gaining Client Agreement For A Sustainable Office
Another challenge tackled is how to convince the client that redesigning their office to be more sustainable would be beneficial for them and it was noted that education and recalibration of expectations will play a crucial role in this endeavor. It is important to highlight the value of sustainability in terms that the client will understand and perhaps take an illustrative approach so that the message of sustainability will be clear and that concerns will be addressed properly.
Making HQ2050 a reality would require the efforts of all concerns industries and parties, so a smarter building management structures leveraging all available data on energy saving will need to be imposed and everyone to be encouraged to join this effort.