The Empire State Building’s retrofit

Recently the Washington Post published an article, with wonderful diagrams, describing how the Empire State building’s retrofit has reduced the emissions by 40% over the past 10 years. They plan to continue to cut an additional 40% off in the decade to come. This is most notable for a few reasons. First, along with the overall energy savings and drop in environmental impact, it improves the indoor environment for its occupants. More significantly for our industry, it proves any building can be retrofitted accordingly to provide compliance with LL97, the Climate Mobilization Act.

We are also seeing more information on embodied carbon in buildings. I have included a few articles below, describing it as both a danger and an opportunity. Other items that caught my attention were a report making a case for mechanical ventilation heat recovery, the clear diagrams illustrating how windows affect R value, and frankly, how hard it is to make up for poor performing windows.

What I’m reading:

Empire State of Green, The Washington Post

CarbonPositive: Danger and Opportunity, Architect Magazine

Embodied Carbon—The New Black, NAPHN

Architects have to deal with the "wicked problem of embodied carbon.", Treehugger

How Windows Make (Or Break) Wall Performance, Illustrated, Passivehouse Accelerator

The case for Mechanical Ventilation, Passivehaus Trust UK