GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS EXISTING BUILDINGS

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GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS EXISTING
BUILDINGS Ashok GuptaDirector of Energy Policy
Natural Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org
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• CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL
• Near unanimous agreement among climate
  scientists that human activities are a
  significant cause of climate change

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• POLICY ACTIONS WILL DRIVE PRIVATE INVESTMENT IN
  CLEAN ENERGY GENERATION AND CARBON MITIGATION
  SOLUTIONS
• Federal cap trade legislation and complementary
  energy policies
• Waxman-Markey (H.R. 2454) in the House,
  Kerry-Boxer (S.1733) in the Senate
• Vehicle fuel economy standards and Transportation
  Bill
• Regional and state level initiatives 
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)
• California AB32/SB375
• Western Climate Initiative (WCI)
• Utility efficiency investments
• Renewable Portfolio Standards
• City legislative and administrative actions
• NYC Greener Greater Buildings legislation
• Benchmarking lighting retrofits base building
  audits, retrofits retro-commissioning
• Updating city building codes

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• THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY CAN HELP BUILD OUR WAY
  OUT OF THE CLIMATE PROBLEM
• Infrastructure Improvements
• Renewable power projects wind, solar
• Transmission distribution infrastructure
  upgrade the national power grid
• Next generation power plants
• Mass-transit infrastructure
• CHP and other distributed generation facilities
• Upgrades to stormwater and wastewater treatment
  facilities
•  Buildings - New Construction
• Transit-oriented developments
• Sustainable communities designed using smart
  growth concepts (LEED-ND)
• Green building practices
• Integrated building system design to improve
  energy efficiency
• Less carbon intensive and energy intensive
  building processes
•  Existing Buildings Energy Efficiency Retrofits

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• TO SERIOUSLY IMPACT CLIMATE CHANGE THE INDUSTRY
  MUST FOCUS ON EXISTING BUILDINGS
• In the US, approximately 40 of energy
  consumption and over 30 of greenhouse gas
  emissions come from the building sector
•  
• Percentages are higher in dense urban areas
• Almost 80 of NYCs GHG emissions come from its
  buildings
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• 90 of building stock in the year 2030 is
  estimated to be standing today
• Cost effective energy efficiency retrofits can
  reduce energy use by
• 20 - 30 or more

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• THREE TYPES OF RESOURCE SCARCITY IMPACT THE
  ENERGY EFFICIENCY BUILDING RETROFIT MARKET
• Energy and materials
• Reusing existing materials through renovation is
  more energy and cost effective than demolishing
  and rebuilding from scratch
• Financing
• Private sector capital resources currently
  available to finance energy efficiency retrofits
  are insufficient to scale up the market
• Workforce
• Scaling up the energy efficiency retrofit
  industry will require workforce retraining
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• 1. RESOURCE SCARCITY ENERGY MATERIALS
• The greenest building is usually the one that is
  already built
• The greenest outcome for an existing building
  site is most often to renovate the existing
  structure, incorporating cost-effective energy
  efficiency measures
• Consumes fewer material resources
• Demolishing existing structure wastes the
  material and energy resources that were used to
  construct the original building
• Much lower demand on resources to fabricate
  materials for renovation, because reusing
  foundation, structure and shell
• Less energy carbon intensive
• Less energy consumed in materials fabrication
• Decreases transportation impact fewer materials
  transported to site
•  Higher ratio of jobs to resource consumption
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• 1. INNOVATE CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES TO REDUCE
  
• CARBON AND ENERGY INTENSITY
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• Empire State Building window remanufacturing
  process
• Adding film and gaseous barrier between existing
  double panes
• 6500 existing windows
• On-site window remanufacturing plant created on a
  vacant floor
• Reduces resource and energy consumption
• reusing window materials for their useful life
• dramatically reduced transportation impact
• Cost-effective economic solution
• substantial energy efficiency gain using most
  cost effective process
• reduced cooling load
• generates material additional capital savings by
  allowing chiller plant retrofit rather than
  replacement
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• 2. RESOURCE SCARCITY FINANCING
• Private sector capital resources currently
  available to finance energy efficiency retrofits
  are insufficient to scale-up the market
• Much intellectual political capital is
  currently focused on developing scalable
  financing models for the efficiency market
• Green Bank (CEDA) would provide up to 12B in
  federal loan guarantees and other financial
  mechanisms, to support up to 120B of private
  sector financing for clean energy technologies,
  including EE building retrofits
• PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) tax
  assessment financing model for efficiency
  retrofits already enacted in 14 states, with many
  more in process
• Department of Energy will award 450M of
  competitive block grants to states and cities to
  help create innovative and sustainable financing
  systems for energy efficiency retrofits
• Green Jobs Green NY a 112M revolving loan fund
  created from RGGI allowances to support EE
  retrofits in single family, multifamily and small
  business sectors
• Creating a viable private financing market will
  build demand for energy efficiency retrofits
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• 3. RESOURCE SCARCITY WORKFORCE
• Scaling up the energy efficiency building
  retrofit industry will require workforce
  retraining
• Few contractors today can take a retrofit project
  from start to finish
• Energy audit, design, installation, post-retrofit
  measurement verification
• Construction industry should participate in
  scaling-up the design and development of training
  programs for clean energy construction projects,
  including energy efficiency building retrofits
• Energy auditing and modeling of projected energy
  savings
• Installation of efficiency measures
• Post installation test-out
• Whole building health and safety issues
  Building Performance Institute
• High quality training will be critical to success
  in scaling-up a sustainable energy efficiency
  retrofit market
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• ADDITIONAL DRIVERS WILL BUILD DEMAND FOR ENERGY
  EFFICIENCY BUILDING RETROFITS (1/2)
• Government requirements, incentives and direct
  projects will build market demand
• Benchmarking labeling protocols will raise
  building owners awareness
• NYCs proposed benchmarking legislation
• Tax and financial incentives will motivate owners
  to act
• Stimulus funds from ARRA
• Utility incentives
• Federal climate legislation
• green bank would provide financing support
• allocation of allowances for energy efficiency
• Retrofit of thousands of federal, state and local
  government buildings will directly impact market
  demand for energy efficiency retrofits

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• ADDITIONAL DRIVERS WILL BUILD DEMAND FOR ENERGY
  EFFICIENCY BUILDING RETROFITS (2/2)
• Potential increases in net operating income
• Increased revenues through higher occupancy, due
  to increasing tenant demand for green space
• faster lease-up
• better tenant retention
• Decreased expenses through energy savings and
  lower turnover costs
• Reduced capital expenses by avoiding overdesign
  of building systems
• Owners compelled to mitigate environmental and
  obsolescence risks of their buildings and
  portfolios
• Increased NOI and decreased environmental risk
  will potentially be reflected in improved exit
  cap rates

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• CONCLUSION (1/2)
• Develop consensus within the industry for the
  construction trade to help scale up solutions to
  the climate problem
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• Focus resources of the construction industry on
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• Building the nationwide infrastructure necessary
  to support our transition to a clean energy
  economy
• Implementing energy efficiency building retrofits
  in single-family, multi-family, commercial,
  governmental, institutional industrial sectors
• Given the resource constraints in the world
  today, design and engineer innovative practices
  to reduce the energy and carbon intensity of
  construction processes

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• CONCLUSION (2/2)
• The expertise to implement these solutions is
  itself a scarce resource
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• Firms should build the engineering, management
  and specific construction expertise necessary to
  undertake complex clean energy infrastructure and
  integrated building system retrofit projects
• The current scarcity of expertise provides a
  substantial business opportunity for first
  movers in the industry to maximize their
  benefits from the rapid growth of the clean tech
  construction sector