Architecture Group Ties Reduced Co2 Emissions To Building Codes

A new white paper, Meeting the 2030 Challenge Through Building Codes, provides what authors contend is the key to deciphering various building energy

A new white paper, Meeting the 2030 Challenge Through Building Codes, provides what authors contend is the key to deciphering various building energy codes and standards across the country as they relate to the 2030 Challenge, which calls for a 50 percent greenhouse gas emission reduction from building operation. Governments and professionals across the U.S. are looking to the 2030 Challenge as an effective way to tame building sector carbon dioxide emissions.

Participants in Architecture 2030, based in Santa Fe, N.M., cite buildings as the major contributor to climate change, being responsible for almost half of all U.S. energy consumption and GHG emissions. The 2030 Challenge calls for a 50 percent reduction in energy consumption, including fossil fuel, GHG-emitting energy, of all new buildings and major renovations by 2010, and for incrementally increasing the reduction every five years, so that all new buildings are carbon neutral by 2030. Meeting the 2030 Challenge Through Building Codes can be downloaded from www.architecture2030.org.