The Pittsburgh 2030 District, an alliance of building owners in the Pittsburgh area, says that it has reduced carbon emissions by 44.8% below baseline.
Begun in 2012 under the guidance of the Green Building Alliance (GBA), the Pittsburgh 2030 District encompasses more than 86 million sf of space within 556 buildings.
The project has created a savings of $205.8 million in energy and water costs, and 1.85 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided since 2012, according to its 2022 Progress Report.
GBA provides participants with education, training, and guidance to further their progress, covering topics such as:
- Conducting deep carbon retrofits on existing buildings to dramatically improve efficiency
- Case studies of net zero carbon retrofits
- Examples of whole building life cycle analysis
- Embodied carbon
- Facilitating building electrification to eliminate fossil fuel use, including replacing furnaces and boilers that run on natural gas with ground- or air-source heat pumps.
- Thermal energy storage
Pittsburgh is the North American leader in amount of square footage committed to 2030 District goals. There are 22 international 2030 Districts in total.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
The softer side of Sears
Built in 1928 as a shining Art Deco beacon for the upper Midwest, the Sears building in Minneapolis—with its 16-story central tower, department store, catalog center, and warehouse—served customers throughout the Twin Cities area for more than 65 years. But as nearby neighborhoods deteriorated and the catalog operation was shut down, by 1994 the once-grand structure was reduced to ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: Westin Book Cadillac Hotel & Condominiums Detroit, Mich.
“From eyesore to icon.” That's how Reconstruction Awards judge K. Nam Shiu so concisely described the restoration effort that turned the decimated Book Cadillac Hotel into a modern hotel and condo development. The tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924, the 32-story Renaissance Revival structure was revered as a jewel in the then-bustling Motor City.