Buildings and climate change: the overlooked opportunity
What sector of the economy uses the most energy, creates the most waste, and produces the most emissions responsible for global climate change? Transportation? Manufacturing?
The answer is buildings, which consume 42% of the nation’s energy, produce 40% of our landfill waste, and create 40% of the emissions responsible for global climate change.
Because buildings are responsible for more energy use, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector, you would think they would receive the most attention in our efforts toward energy independence, waste reduction, and fighting global warming. But while biofuels, hybrid cars, and alternative energy make headlines, you won’t hear buildings mentioned in a state of the union address or “An Inconvenient Truth.”
But if buildings are the great unaddressed culprit in energy consumption, waste, and global climate change, they are also the great unaddressed opportunity. Building insulation, for example, is the most cost-effective means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the planet.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s report, Buildings and Climate Change, “The high investment costs involved, the lack of information on energy-efficient solutions at all levels, as well as the (perceived or real) lack of availability of solutions to specific conditions, are considered as the major barriers to implementing energy efficiency measures in buildings.”
Because of this lack of information and solutions, the abundance of energy-efficient solutions nanotechnology has to offer the building industry, and the fact that buildings are the primary source of energy consumption, waste and carbon emissions in our country, Green Technology Forum is committing to focus on emerging technologies for the building industry, starting with a forthcoming report on Nanotechnology and Green Building.
I’ll be presenting on this vital topic at the upcoming Nanotech 2007 and Cleantech 2007 conferences, and I welcome your input as we explore this urgent and exciting subject.