In 2013, City of Sydney has published an article about the vast saving from energy retrofit program on city’s buildings. An annual saving of around 6.4 million kilowatt hours can be generated from some very simple strategies. Such as installation of movement sensors on vending machines which make sure the lights are only turned on when they are in use. This amount of saved energy is equivalent to the annual energy supply of 870 household, and a reduction of around 0.9 million in power bills every year. (City of Sydney 2013)
This is a great evidence of showing buildings are great carbon emitters. Therefore, to help achieve Sydney’s 2030 target of reducing carbon emission by 70% compare to 2006 level, it is recommended that the city pays more attention of reducing building related energy consumption. The following paragraphs outlines some potential actions that can be integrated with this recommendation.
By investigating Boston’s action plan in reducing municipal greenhouse gas emission, reduction from building and energy sources has taken a share of 67% of their total reduction goal for 2020. By 2014, Boston has achieved approximately 17% reduction where most of these reduction is due to use of cleaner energy.
This is a great evidence of showing buildings are great carbon emitters. Therefore, to help achieve Sydney’s 2030 target of reducing carbon emission by 70% compare to 2006 level, it is recommended that the city pays more attention of reducing building related energy consumption. The following paragraphs outlines some potential actions that can be integrated with this recommendation.
By investigating Boston’s action plan in reducing municipal greenhouse gas emission, reduction from building and energy sources has taken a share of 67% of their total reduction goal for 2020. By 2014, Boston has achieved approximately 17% reduction where most of these reduction is due to use of cleaner energy.
Retrofit programs on existing buildingsHansen, Steve, 2014, Programs for Deep Energy Retrofits Show Promise in Residential Market, Sourceable, viewed 15 Sep 2015
<https://sourceable.net/programs-deep-energy-retrofits-show-promise-residential-market/#> Large scale buildings such as commercial office tower, residential high-rises should actively engage themselves in building retrofit program in all different scales and stages. It could be as simple as installing movement sensor to minimize unnecessary light supply, or monitoring and adjusting air-conditioning supply according to varying demand For example, air-conditioning supply varies according to room size, number of occupants etc. Ranking system and rewards can be implemented to encourage participation. For medium or small scale buildings such as small business and individual households, government can provide support by applying energy efficiency incentives to support more vulnerable people. For Boston, annual cost of installing eclectic and natural gas utilities is likely to be over $60 million. Boston Government has also launched specific programs to support people at all levels. For example, the residential and small business program and supplementing retrofit programs for more vulnerable community. Funding of these retrofit programs also involves an interplay of their parties. While this payback period for the city might be longer, individual household can get instant savings from their monthly power bills. This is an effective way of raising social awareness. |
Green building codes on newly built buildingsBuilding codes and standards should be updated to improve building performance in climate mitigation and adaptation. Newly designed and built buildings should comply these updated building codes and standards. The city of Boston has got both compulsory and optional building codes for energy efficiency. Developments over 20,000 square feet would have to be LEED-certifiable. And an optional "stretch energy code" has been established. New developments that has adopted these additional standard can get extra energy grants and be qualified as Green Community.
At the moment, Australia has the Green Star building standard which mainly focuses on climate mitigation. Therefore, adaptation standards are recommended to be added. Such strategies include, locating critical building service away from vulnerable zones. For example, mechanical and electrical plants in basement or on ground floor makes critical services of building highly vulnerable to flooding. The following image shows an example of a climate-prepared building. Figure 14. A Climate-prepared Building (Greenovate Boston 2014 p.68)
|
Reference
1. City of Sydney, 2013, City retrofit saves enough power to run small town, City of Sydney, viewed 13 September, 2015
http://www.sydneymedia.com.au/city-retrofit-saves-enough-power-to-run-small-town/
http://www.sydneymedia.com.au/city-retrofit-saves-enough-power-to-run-small-town/