American Chemistry Council (ACC) is touting projections in a new report by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) showing that combining building efficiency improvements-made possible by innovations in chemistry–with lower-carbon fuels could lead to a 41 percent reduction in energy use and a 70& reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Of all the energy used in the U.S., nearly one-third is consumed by the building sector. Improving efficiency is critical, and during the next few decades the amount of energy used by the building sector will increase dramatically (more than 62% by 2050), as will the amount of CO? emissions (more than 87% by 2050), according to the ICCA report.
“The ICCA projections reinforce what we have known for long time – that the chemical industry is an indispensable provider of solutions that improve the energy efficiency of buildings,” said Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council. “Nearly every energy-efficient technology is dependent on innovations made possible by chemistry. Our products make the nation’s energy supplies go further while lowering energy costs for businesses and families.”
The ICCA Building Technology Roadmap, which will be officially released this week at the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha, Qatar, examined the chemical industry’s contributions to energy efficiency and greenhouse gas savings in residential and commercial construction. The report focused on the potential savings from five chemically derived building technologies that are commercially available today: insulation, pipe and pipe insulation, air sealing, reflective roof coatings and pigments, and windows.
According to the ICCA report, energy-saving products installed in homes in the U.S. prevented nearly 283 million tons of CO? emissions in 2010–equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 50 million passenger vehicles. Studies show that if this trend continues, more than 7 billion tons of emissions can be avoided by 2050 in the U.S. alone–equivalent to the CO? emissions of more than 1.2 billion passenger vehicles.
Averaging at least 75% of the heat loss in households, single-family homes provide most of the potential for energy savings within the residential sector. In 2010, the cumulative energy savings from chemically derived building products in U.S. residential buildings was 46 times greater than the energy required to produce the products. +
Related Stories
| May 11, 2012
Dempster named to AIA College of Fellows
Altoon Partners’ technical and construction services leader honored for his contributions.
| May 11, 2012
AIA launches education and training portal
New portal to host Contract Documents training, education resources in one convenient place.
| May 10, 2012
Chapter 7 When Modern Becomes Historic: Preserving the Modernist Building Envelope
This AIA CES Discovery course explores the special reconstruction questions posed by Modern-era buildings.
| May 10, 2012
Chapter 6 Energy Codes + Reconstructed Buildings: 2012 and Beyond
Our experts analyze the next generation of energy and green building codes and how they impact reconstruction.
| May 10, 2012
Chapter 5 LEED-EB and Green Globes CIEB: Rating Sustainable Reconstruction
Certification for existing buildings under these two rating programs has overtaken that for new construction.
| May 10, 2012
Chapter 4 Business Case for High-Performance Reconstructed Buildings
Five reconstruction projects in one city make a bottom-line case for reconstruction across the country.
| May 10, 2012
Chapter 3 How Building Technologies Contribute to Reconstruction Advances
Building Teams are employing a wide variety of components and systems in their reconstruction projects.
| May 10, 2012
Chapter 2 Exemplary High-Performance Reconstruction Projects
Several case studies show how to successfully renovate existing structures into high-performance buildings.
| May 9, 2012
Chapter 1 Reconstruction: ‘The 99% Solution’ for Energy Savings in Buildings
As a share of total construction activity reconstruction has been on the rise in the U.S. and Canada in the last few years, which creates a golden opportunity for extensive energy savings.
| May 9, 2012
International green building speaker to keynote Australia’s largest building systems trade show
Green building, sustainability consultant, green building book author Jerry Yudelson will be the keynote speaker at the Air-Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Systems (ARBS) conference in Melbourne, Australia.