 Media Credit: Nate Vanderweerd Sustainability meets style in buildings that generate their own energy right here in greater Montreal, from left to right: Concordia's John Molson School of Engineering, Ecoterra and Alstonvale model homes. [Click to enlarge]
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Most of us don't have the means or willpower to trade in our energy-chugging laptops and move to candlelit communes, or emulate the DiCaprios or Gores who can afford retrofitting their SUVs to run on electricity. But now there's a movement for the majority: the 2030 Challenge, a global initiative calling for carbon-neutral buildings by 2030, outlines steps towards a green future forged on practical and affordable urban technologies.
In an otherwise transportation-centric green movement, the 2030 Challenge targets buildings. This makes sense: homes, offices, and schools produce roughly 45 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gasses, while transportation is responsible for only 28 per cent. Buildings also consume more energy than anything else; they consume around 75 per cent of all electricity produced. The numbers are similar in the United States, where in 2002 Edward Mazria founded Architecture 2030, a coalition of green-minded architects.
Why 2030? Research projections suggest that by that time, most current buildings will have to be restored or replaced. According to Mazria, it's also when "scientists are saying [transformations in our energy usage] are necessary by in order to avoid dangerous climate change."
Sustainability after the stone ages
Mazria first presented the coalition's goals as a formal global challenge in 2005 at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's annual Festival of Architecture conference.
"When Mazria presented the 2030 Challenge, we thought, 'That's a good idea!' But we hadn't thought it could be a huge international initiative," says Vivian Manasc, a McGill architecture alumna and former RAIC president who chaired the conference. "We just thought it was something that made sense and was consistent with what we were doing."
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Lynne Champoux-Williams
posted 2/17/09 @ 2:08 PM EST
I am doing an internship at the Coopérative de solidarité V.E.R.T.E. (see http://www.coopverte.com/coopverte/). My mandate is to try to reach LEED certification for a new appendix to an inn. (Continued…)
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