Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of the CBC News initiative, entitled “Our Changing Planet”, to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up to date with the latest news on our climate and environment page.
To understand the carbon footprint of cities around the world, just look at their silhouettes.
While industry and transport have long been labeled as the main culprits for carbon, some environmentalists are trying to raise awareness of another source of concern, especially in dense urban areas – buildings, multi-level structures that fill many cities.
The amount of energy needed for lighting, cooling, heating and ventilation can make up a large part of the city’s carbon production. According to a UN report, buildings in the world account for 37% of energy-related carbon emissions in 2020.
“In a city like New York, 70% of our carbon emissions come from buildings,” said John Mandick, chief executive of the Urban Green Council, a New York-based advocacy group that works to help make buildings more sustainable. .
“We are dealing with buildings, we are solving the crisis of the planet,” New York Governor Katie Hochul said at an event on Thursday, revealing a book about it.
The grand staircase of the Empire State Building. Its ambitious modernization reached an important stage last year, reducing carbon emissions by more than 50 percent. By 2030, the goal is to be carbon neutral. (Amanda Stevens Photography / Empire State Realty Trust)
The event was on the 80th floor, overlooking the sea of buildings in New York, the very problem Hochul is talking about. But more importantly, it is happening at the Empire State Building, which has managed to achieve an ambitious feat – to make a building built in 1930 one of the most energy efficient in the world.
“If we can do it at the Empire State Building, a historically preserved pre-war icon, we believe we can do it anywhere,” said Anthony Malkin, CEO of Empire State Realty Trust, the company that owns and operates the Empire State Building.
The goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030
After a decade of implementation, the ambitious modernization of Empire State reached an important milestone last year, reducing its carbon emissions by more than 50 percent. By 2030, the goal is to be carbon neutral, said Dana Schneider, director of energy and sustainability at the Empire State Realty Trust, in a press release.
The company is now releasing Empire Building Playbook: Owner’s Guide to Low-Carbon Upgrades, packed with all the lessons of the past 10 years and their plans for the future.
Former US President Bill Clinton, center left, New York Governor Katie Hochul, center right and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, right, at Earth Day event with statements on environmental improvements to the Empire State Building infrastructure , Thursday, in New York. (John Minchilo / Associated Press)
“Every piece of this building we did to make it better,” Schneider said.
From the outside, the Empire State Building can still look like it did in the 1930s when it drilled the ground for its height and Art Deco design. But now it is working in a way that would probably be unrecognizable to its original builders.
Take triple-glazed windows with krypton and argon molecules injected into the air gap for extra insulation. All 6514 windows of the building received an upgrade. Heat loss during the winter months and heat accumulation during the summer are a huge problem for older windows, which can drain the building’s cooling and heating system.
Here you can see the emblematic elevators of the Empire State Building. In 2019, the building completed the largest elevator modernization project in the world. All 68 of its elevators have a regenerative braking system. (Empire State Realty Trust)
“We used 96 percent of the original glass and frames and made it in a window factory we built on the fifth floor. “Nothing left the building,” Malkin said.
This project was completed in 2010.
In 2019, the building completed the largest elevator modernization project in the world. All 68 of its elevators have a regenerative braking system. Elevators not only use less energy to move, but also generate energy as they go up and down to power other systems in the building.
1: The double-glazed window has been removed and disassembled. 2: Each glass is washed three times. 3: New spacers are attached to each glass. 4: The insulating foil is applied to one glass through the conveyor. 5: The second glass is applied on top and sealed as a whole. 6: Bake the device to tighten the film layer. 7: Inert gases are introduced into the appliance. 8: The device is reassembled in the frame and reassembled. (CBC)
In the basement there is another key modernization, cooling system, centralized system that cools the air for a building. At first glance, the Empire State cooler may look like it did in the 1950s, but the software you’re working on now will tell you otherwise.
“So we actually took out all the guts, recycled all the metal, and built new interiors for the on-site coolers,” said Schneider, who toured CBC News with a tour of the building’s major energy-saving improvements.
The new system can collect data and be programmed to cool 300,000 meters of building space with optimal efficiency.
“It is not enough if we succeed only in the Empire State Building”
“Everything we’ve learned here is being shared because it’s not enough to succeed at the Empire State Building alone,” Schneider said.
This is the meaning of the textbook, developed jointly by the New York State Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the agency that helps guide the government’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent by 2050.
The online guide, which is available to anyone who can use it, breaks down dozens of measures used by the Empire State Building, plus hundreds of new ideas to support massive building renovations, including power grid upgrades.
“We work with 10 of the largest real estate companies in New York State, which own more than 700 large buildings,” said Janet Joseph, senior executive at NYSERDA.
Josef said the partnership has led to a commitment from owners to decarbonize more than 50 million square meters of their existing buildings over the next decade. State leaders hope their boost will have a projected $ 20 billion economic impact in the United States and 100,000 jobs if all New York City buildings follow the rules.
“I say welcome to the energy future of New York, and like New York, the nation goes and goes to the world,” Hochul said.
In Canada, 100,000 large buildings are in need of refurbishment
In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for a zero-emission building code by the end of 2024.
The Canadian Green Building Council estimates that about 100,000 large buildings need refurbishment to help the country reduce its carbon footprint.
“The average Canadian probably doesn’t know that buildings make a huge contribution to the country’s carbon emissions,” said Thomas Mueller, chief executive of the Canadian Green Building Council. “They focus on the industry, they focus on the cars. The fact is that we need action in all three areas.”
Part of this action is already legal in New York. In 2019, the city passed a law that would require large buildings to limit their carbon emissions by 2024, the first municipality in the world to pass such a law.
WATCH Vancouver reduces the amount of fossil fuels used to heat buildings:
Vancouver’s insistence on zero-emission energy sources in buildings
The city of Vancouver is joining the North American push to reduce the amount of fossil fuels used to heat buildings by turning zero-emission energy sources into a policy for new low-rise apartment buildings. 2:12
Mueller says political will is important, but so is private support.
“I want the 25 major commercial property owners in Canada to commit to decarbonising their entire building stock over the next 30 years,” he said.
For the group gathered on the top floor of the Empire State Building, the day before Earth Day, the hope is that the book will reach far beyond New York and enable defenders around the world, such as Mueller.
“You have the book, you have no excuses and you have a story that awaits your actions today,” Hochul said.
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