10 Facts About All-Electric New Buildings

The benefits of electrifying New York State can’t be overstated. All-electric buildings are healthier, more energy-efficient, and more affordable for families and households. All-electric buildings are also crucial for cutting carbon pollution. To meet the state’s 2030 and 2050 emission reduction mandates, most buildings must use electric heat pumps for heating and cooling, and for hot water. Passing the All-Electric Buildings Act is the easiest, most doable first step toward decarbonization.

But the gas industry has a vested interest in making electrification seem as impractical and unnecessary as possible, in New York and across the country. They’re working overtime to …

Transforming Existing Buildings from Climate Liabilities to Climate Assets

Investing in existing buildings makes climate sense; retrofitting an existing building emits 50 to 75 percent less carbon than constructing the same building new. However, we cannot ignore the embodied carbon impact of these retrofits. It is important to consider the upfront embodied carbon emissions that arise from the production, transportation, and installation of materials to prevent a spike in emissions that will negate years of the operating emissions reductions achieved through retrofits.

This report provides data to support using low-carbon and carbon-storing materials in deep energy retrofits to reduce net emissions and transform buildings into climate assets. The study …

The Economics of Electrifying Buildings: Residential New Construction

To help inform crucial policy and market decisions with up-to-date cost analysis information, RMI updated and expanded its 2020 analysis, The New Economics of Electrifying Buildings. Due to significant changes in gas and electricity rates and evolving construction costs, we examine the economic and climate impacts of building all-electric single-family new construction — homes that rely on electric appliances for space and water heating, cooking, and clothes drying.

Our analysis shows that all-electric, single-family new construction is more economical to build and operate than a home with gas appliances and has lower lifetime emissions in all nine cities studied. This …

Retrofitting Buildings to be Future-Fit

Globally, the real estate industry is facing an enormous challenge: retrofitting our buildings to reduce global carbon emissions. It is time for those leading the industry, along with governments, to drive the asset transformation needed. JLL estimates that US$3 trillion will be required to meet these retrofitting targets. Addressing the knowledge gap, upskilling the workforce and scaling technology will be critical. The transition to a low carbon economy comes with a hefty price tag but as recently declared by the IMF, further delaying climate policies will hurt economic growth; the time to act is now.

Retrofitting existing building stock provides …

2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction

The 2022 Buildings-GSR finds that despite a substantial increase in investment and success at a global level lowering the energy intensity of buildings, the sector’s total energy consumption and CO2 emissions increased in 2021 above pre-pandemic levels. Buildings energy demand increased by around 4% from 2020 to 135 EJ – the largest increase in the last 10 years. CO2 emissions from buildings operations have reached an all-time high of around 10 GtCO2, around a 5% increase from 2020 and 2% higher than the previous peak in 2019.

The buildings and construction sector is not on track to achieve decarbonization by …

A National Roadmap for Clean Buildings

America’s built environment consists of 124 million residential and 5.9 million commercial buildings, which together generate toxic amounts of air pollution and account for 13 percent of national carbon pollution. For the Biden administration to meet its ambitious climate goals, the White House must now implement rigorous pollution and efficiency standards to swiftly transition America’s buildings to efficient, clean appliances like heat pumps and induction stoves.

The first two years of President Joe Biden’s administration have included historic progress for climate action, but there remains so much more to do. In order to meet his target of a 50-52 percent …

Demand Flexibility and Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings 101

Demand flexibility (DF)—the ability of buildings and equipment to adjust energy use dynamically in response to grid conditions—and its application in grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEB)—energy efficient, smart buildings that provide demand flexibility co-optimized to serve occupants and the grid— offer important capabilities for managing an increasingly complex electricity system. They will be key to address imperatives of energy affordability and equity, reliability and resilience, and environmental protection, including energy system decarbonization. The potential to align energy use in buildings and facilities with grid conditions to mutually support customer, grid, and societal needs has far reaching electricity policy, regulatory, and investment …

Buildings, Forklifts, and Automobiles: Insights on Utility Electrification Efforts and Opportunities

Electric vehicles (EVs), building heating technologies, and commercial and industrial equipment are quickly emerging as attractive electrification or fuel switching opportunities for utilities. These electric technologies have the potential to decrease customer costs, decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) and smog causing emissions, increase utility revenue, and benefit customers broadly. However, not all electrification of everything everywhere provides these beneficial outcomes.

The goal for utilities isn’t electrification. The goal is beneficial electrification.

This paper offers insights and considerations aimed at maximizing the benefits while mitigating the potential challenges of electrifying transportation, buildings, and commercial and industrial equipment. It also includes actionable recommendations …

Hot, Cold, & Clean: Policy Solutions to Promote Equitable and Affordable Adoption of Heat Pump Retrofits in Existing Buildings

California’s residential and commercial building sector accounts for nearly a quarter of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, with combustion of fuel for heating buildings generating more than 10 percent of state emissions. As the state moves toward all-electric buildings, and as climate change exacerbates the need for air conditioning, replacing older gas-powered furnaces and air conditioning units with heat pumps—a highly efficient technology that provides space and water heating and cooling—can increase efficiency, comfort and resilience. Heat pump deployment in existing buildings is a key aspect of the overall integrated strategy to achieve carbon-free targets for the buildings sector.…

Towards a Sustainable Global Construction and Buildings Value Chain

Construction sector accounts for 50% of global resource extraction, making it the most material-intensive sector in the world. This LeadIT  brief adopts a value-chain approach to understand where major challenges and opportunities for sustainability occur, and how these could be shaped through decisions made at different stages.…