by Shane Henson — February 3, 2012—Preservation Green Lab, an offshoot of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was created to advance research that explores the value that older buildings bring to their communities, has a released a report providing comprehensive analysis on the potential environmental benefit of building reuse.
This study, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse, concludes that, when comparing buildings of equivalent size and function, building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction.
Findings include:
- Reuse Matters. Building reuse typically offers greater environmental savings than demolition and new construction. It can take between 10 to 80 years for a new energy-efficient building to overcome, through efficient operations, the climate change impacts created by its construction. The study finds that the majority of building types in different climates will take between 20-30 years to compensate for the initial carbon impacts from construction.
- Scale Matters. Collectively, building reuse and retrofits substantially reduce climate change impacts. Retrofitting, rather than demolishing and replacing, just one percent of the city of Portland’s office buildings and single family homes over the next ten years would help to meet 15 percent of their county’s total CO2 reduction targets over the next decade.
- Design Matters. The environmental benefits of reuse are maximized by minimizing the input of new construction materials. Renovation projects that require many new materials can reduce or even negate the benefits of reuse.
- Scale Matters. Collectively, building reuse and retrofits substantially reduce climate change impacts. Retrofitting, rather than demolishing and replacing, just one percent of the city of Portland’s office buildings and single family homes over the next ten years would help to meet 15 percent of their county’s total CO2 reduction targets over the next decade.
