CIET trainer, Ali Syed reviews energy policies and design strategies that can help reduce energy and GHG footprint climate change resilience.
According to United Nations Habitat, world cities contribute 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions while occupying only 2% of the world’s land surface. Additionally, UN estimates show that by 2050 two thirds of the world’s population is projected to live in urban areas.
Such immense and rapid urbanization will require planning and design strategies for mitigation of resource consumption to achieve reductions in energy and carbon footprint and assist in creating low-carbon future cityscapes.
The following four topics encapsulate prominent energy policies and design strategies that can help reduce energy and GHG footprint for future resilience of urban infrastructure:
The imperative first step towards fighting climate change is to incorporate primary sustainability consideration for architectural, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical design requirements as per all applicable national or jurisdictional codes and sustainability standards. Most of the nations in the world have developed and implemented some form of building design and sustainability codes.
There are several leading green building standards and for any national or municipal policy. It is crucial to mandate building design, construction and operation to comply with the most stringent applicable codes/standards. Some examples of leading design guides and standards are:
Based on jurisdiction, it is paramount to comply with all applicable sustainability standards and codes as a minimum.
It’s important to incentivize fuels with the lowest carbon footprint. Promoting fuels, appliances, equipment and technologies with low GHG footprint is paramount. Several leading organizations provide assessment and design tools for GHG and carbon footprint estimation for designers and developers (ex: US Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Canada).
In addition, it is important to use the utility rates that provide maximum operating cost savings. Savings from operating cost by reducing expensive fuel use is very helpful to improve the financial viability and payback of energy conservation measures.
Following architectural design policies have been shown to achieve significant energy and thus reduction of carbon footprint in the built environment.
Use of onsite renewable energy systems to offset building energy cost is a very prevalent strategy. For any climate change resilient urban development policy, it is important to assess the potential of non-polluting and renewable energy systems including solar, wind, geothermal, low-impact hydro, biomass and bio-gas strategies. With any renewable energy strategy, it should be mandated to take advantage of net metering with the local utility. A detailed discussion of renewable energy systems is beyond the scope of this paper, however, there are several national and municipal tools provided by many nations across the globe for the renewable energy potential for the project site.
Ali is a trainer in CIET’s Certified Energy Manager course. He has more than 19 years of diverse experience in Energy Conservation, Renewable Energy Systems, Energy Performance Contracting, Energy Management and Sustainability. Ali is working as a Technical Lead overseeing the entire LEED, BOMA, Green Globes, Built Green Facilitation & Energy Modeling, HVAC System sizing, Energy Auditing, Life-Cycle Costing Assessment, Measurement & Verification and some Commissioning work. Ali is also a CaGBC Experienced Energy Modeller, LEED AP, Green Globes Professional (GGP), Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP).
Throughout his career, Ali has conducted numerous Energy Audits ranging from commercial, healthcare, educational, residential and heavy industrial clients across North America and Asia. He actively speaks at international energy conferences and symposia and teaches numerous courses in energy conservation across North America. Finally, Ali has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles on energy conservation globally. He demonstrates in-depth knowledge and understanding of project management tools & methodologies, and instruments and processes related to project preparation & implementation, resource management, and stakeholder communications.
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