Chapter 3 Blog: Architecture 2030 Article

 my blog this week, I chose to read about the Architecture 2030 goal. This organization is striving towards having a cleaner and healthier environment starting with our buildings. Carbon emissions have become a largely popular topic in recent years, with this being the main cause of global warming and trapped greenhouse gases. They have established three areas that are to be targeted to help cut back the emissions. Controlling new buildings, embodied carbon, and existing building will help reduce carbon emissions. It is stated that population is rising at rapid rates "The world is currently undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in human history. More than half of the global population is now concentrated in urban areas" (“Existing Buildings: Operational Emissions.” Architecture 2030, architecture2030.org/existing-buildings-operation/.)With the amount of housing and other facilities needing to increase in urban areas, CO2 emissions have risen about 1% each year since 2010 and are projected to keep increasing. The way we begin to construct these new buildings needs to be done in an environmental friendly manner in order to help combat climate change. We are currently in what is called a "critical window of opportunity" meaning if we don't start to implicate carbon free methods to building it will soon be at the point of no return. The ruling that the Paris Agreement outlined was that any new building must be designed to be energy efficient and use no CO2 emissions in the process. Embodied carbon is another category where adjustment is needed in order to achieve their goal. Almost half of the carbon emissions today come from embodied carbon which, is in materials such as concrete, iron, and steel. These particular materials alone account for roughly 9% of the yearly emissions. Other items such as transportation are classified as embodied carbon. "Every year, 6.13 billion square meters of buildings are constructed. The embodied carbon emissions of that construction is approximately 3729 million metric tons CO₂ per year" (“Existing Buildings: Operational Emissions.” Architecture 2030, architecture2030.org/existing-buildings-operation/.) The reason embodied carbons are such a large issue is due to the fact that once they are used they are they and constantly emitting. The only way to control these is to find an alternative substance and slowly faze out the embodied carbons. Operational carbons on the other hand, is something that can be reduced as buildings become more environmentally friendly. In a recent study it was found that "nearly two-thirds of the building area that exist today will still exist in 2050"(). With this fact, lowering emissions also applies to the existing buildings since they will continue to be prevalent in our world. Many cities have been trying to figure out a plan of how this can be achieved. New buildings that have met environmental standards to become carbon neutral only account for a small portion of the overall goal. The objective set out for existing buildings ,as stated in the Paris Agreement, is that "the rate and depth of existing building energy efficiency renovations and the generation and procurement of renewable energy  (energy upgrades) is required" (“Existing Buildings: Operational Emissions.” Architecture 2030, architecture2030.org/existing-buildings-operation/.) The goal of the Architecture 2030 organization can be achieved in the proper timeline if builders comply with safe buildings helping to lead to a healthier future. 

The image above shows the estimated projection of how and where carbon emissions will be cut 

down, the ultimate goal is net carbon zero by 2050.

The image above show the specific areas of carbon emissions from both building and embodied

carbons, this shows the average yearly percentages for the areas.