Where there is urgency, there is opportunity

Scott Lewis

In August 2008, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that we have seven years to radically transform our society if we are to avert “nothing less than an existential threat to civilization.”  Seven years. 

In response to this dire threat, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) late in 2008 announced that “climate change is the most important environmental and economic issue of our time,” and unveiled a plan designed to reduce the state’s carbon dioxide (CO2 )emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. A group of industry lobbyists called Oregonians for Balanced Climate Policy quickly responded, saying that if enacted, even Oregon’s tepid plan would “shut down industry.” As is often the case, they failed to mention what will happen to industry if we do nothing.

As the special interest groups and legislators debate policy decisions, the threat worsens. A 52-year study published in the January 2009 edition of the journal Science concluded that trees in western forests are dying at increased rates due to global warming, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that in 2007 and 2008, the polar ice cap had its two greatest losses ever.  Seven years? Where do we begin?

The sustainable buildings solution
Because buildings consume about 48 percent of all energy used in the United States, reducing fossil fuel used to power buildings offers tremendous potential as a means to combat global warming. Unwilling to let uncomprehending politicians and obdurate business interests define our future, the visionaries of the New Economy have begun creating solutions in the midst of the crumbling ruins of a failed industrial past. 

Inspired policy 
While governors and mayors scramble to claim credit for incremental strategies that will barely slow the acceleration of melting ice caps, Architecture 2030 established a target with some real oomph: a 90 percent reduction in building-related CO2 emissions by 2025, and a goal of climate-neutrality by 2030. Now we’re getting serious. And in the “truly serious” category, Al Gore earlier this year publicly challenged the new Obama administration to target 100 percent renewable power for the United States in 10 years. The 10-year target may sound fiendishly challenging—unrealistic to some—but Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute and others have demonstrated roadmaps that make these kinds of targets both possible and economically viable. The takeaway from Gore and 2030 is to not settle for mediocre visions of what is possible, but rather, to ask for what we really want: powerful policy change that could actually help avert some of the worst impacts of the climate crisis in a meaningful time frame.

More with less: the Passivhaus movement
Europe and Asia, where energy has long cost more than in the United States, have in many ways been the pioneers of some of the most important sustainability frameworks, tools and strategies.  From the Natural Step’s birthplace in Sweden to Germany’s millions of acres of eco-roofs to double-skinned buildings, we have much to learn from our friends across the pond. One of the latest new trends from Europe to take root in U.S. soil is the Passivhaus movement. Started in 1988 by two professors from Lund University in Sweden and now codified as a building standard by the Passivhaus Institute in Darmstald, Germany, the structures rely on triple-glazed high-performance windows, air-to-air heat exchangers called Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) systems and small building footprints to create envelopes that require no mechanical heating or cooling. While there are currently roughly 15,000 homes and small commercial buildings designed to the standard worldwide, the majority are still in Germany and Scandinavia. The first certified Passivhaus in the United States was built in Minnesota in 2006, and the first Passivhaus in England was commissioned in January 2009. As of January 2008, the U.S. Passive House Institute, based in Urbana, Ill., become the official U.S. certifier of Passivhaus projects.