How to reduce a building's carbon emissions - Part one. Thought starters with Catriona Brady

Thought starters - Global experts. Intelligent insights.

Catriona Brady – Director of Strategy at the World Green Building Council discusses how to reduce a building's carbon emissions in a two-part episode of Thought starters.

​Catriona Brady, "I think a lot of us think about climate change and the environment and the image that comes to mind is cars or power stations, but actually 37% of energy-related carbon emissions come from the built environment.

At an individual building level, there is so much that every person or organisation can do. Some of the core principles and a phrase I really like is to, "Be lean, be clean and be green," and "Be lean" is all about being efficient in your energy use. "Be clean" is all about the systems that are being used, making sure they're clean in their power requirements and use, and "Be green" is all about the production and consumption of renewable energy.

We want people to be considering the whole life carbon emissions of a building or an asset, so not just the emissions of that specific building when it's operational, but we also need to change our thinking to consider the impacts of the way that we're operating or designing or using our building in terms of how it will impact the emissions it releases across its 50 to 100-year lifespan.

The other big part of this conversation is about retrofit. If we are looking at how we can decarbonise the world in which we live in now, obviously design principles and new buildings are really important, but we have to be able to decarbonise the spaces that already exist.

The buildings and our cities that are already occupied and will have a lifespan of decades more to come. Taking this integrated approach is so vital through the life cycle of how we create and use buildings, and also how we retrofit our buildings today so that we're preparing for these climatic changes and hopefully future-proofing."

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