Green Building in North America: Opportunities and Challenges Opportunities Two Green Building in North America
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GREEN BUILDING IN NORTH AMERICA GREEN BUILDING IN NORTH OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES SECRETARIAT REPORT TO COUNCIL UNDER ARTICLE 13 OF THE NORTH AMERICAN AGREEMENT ON ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION www.cec.org/greenbuilding CEC COMMISSION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION 393, RUE ST-JACQUES OUEST, BUREAU 200 MONTREAL (QUEBEC) CANADA H2Y 1N9 100% This Article 13 report was prepared by the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The information contained herein does not necessarily refl ect the views of the CEC or the governments of Canada, Mexico or the United States of America. The report is published in the three languages of the CEC: English, French and Spanish. However, as the text was originally prepared in English and thereafter translated, in the case of disputed meaning, reference should be made to the English version. Reproduction of this document in whole or in part and in any form for educational or nonprofit purposes may be made without special permission from the CEC Secretariat, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. The CEC would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication or material that uses this document as a source. Published by the Communications Department of the CEC Secretariat. © Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 2008 ISBN 2-923358-47-3 (Spanish edition: 2-923358-48-1; French edition: 2-923358-49-X) Printed in Canada Legal Deposit-Bibliothèque national du Québec, 2008 on Rolland Enviro100 paper containing Legal Deposit-National Library of Canada, 2008 100% post-consumer fi ber and produced using biogas energy. This paper is certifi ed For more information: EcoLogo, Processed COMMISSION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL COOPERATION Chlorine Free and FSC recycled. 393, rue St-Jacques Ouest, bureau 200 Montreal (Quebec) Canada H2Y 1N9 T 514 350-4300 F 514 350-4314 [email protected] Cert no. SGS-COC-2332 www.cec.org Cover Photos: KMD Architects, Bill Touchberry, Heifer International, UBC Sustainability Offi ce/Matsuzaki Architects Inc., David Morillón TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 1. INTRODUCTION 9 2. GREEN BUILDING IN NORTH AMERICA 15 A. FEATURES OF GREEN BUILDING 16 B. HOW WIDESPREAD IS GREEN BUILDING? 17 C. RATING SYSTEMS 18 D. A PROCESS OF CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT 18 3. A FOUNDATIONAL DRIVER FOR CHANGE 21 A. THE NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF CURRENT BUILDING PRACTICES 22 B. BENEFITS OF GREEN BUILDING 23 4. CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS AND BUILDINGS 33 A. GREEN BUILDING AND GHG EMISSIONS 34 B. CALLING FOR AGGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT IN NORTH AMERICA 36 5. GREEN BUILDING ENERGY SCENARIOS FOR 2030 39 A. MODELING AGGRESSIVE ENERGY-SAVING SCENARIOS 40 B. COUNTRY-SPECIFIC RESULTS 42 C. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS 47 6. DRIVERS AND BARRIERS TO IMPROVEMENT 49 A. MOMENTUM TOWARD GREEN BUILDING IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 50 B. MOMENTUM TOWARD GREEN BUILDING IN MEXICO 52 C. BARRIERS TO GREEN BUILDINGS 54 7. PROMOTING MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL COOPERATION 59 8. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NORTH AMERICA 63 THE SECRETARIAT’S RECOMMENDATIONS ON MAKING GREEN BUILDING STANDARD PRACTICE IN NORTH AMERICA 65 APPENDIX: ADVISORY GROUP STATEMENT 71 The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is an international organization PREFACE created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). The CEC was established to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental confl icts, and promote the effective enforcement of environmental law. The Agreement complements the environmental provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). At the behest of Executive Directors William Kennedy and Adrián Vázquez, Tim Whitehouse and Geoff Garver of the CEC Secretariat prepared this report pursuant to Article 13 of the NAAEC. Article 13 is a section of the NAAEC that gives the CEC Secretariat authority to prepare reports on important environmental issues and present them to the governments and people of Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Previous Article 13 reports have addressed the effects of transgenic maize in Mexico, environmental challenges and opportunities of an evolving continental electricity market, an agenda for preserving transboundary migratory bird habitat on the Upper San Pedro River, an agenda for cooperation to address long-range transport of air pollution in North America, and the death of migratory birds at the Silva Reservoir in Guanajuato, Mexico. The CEC Secretariat would like to acknowledge the many individuals and organizations that contributed time and energy to the successful completion of this report. Special mention goes to the CEC Advisory Group on Green Building, chaired by Jonathan Westeinde, whose members have worked under a very tight deadline to develop the Statement and Advice on Recommendations that represent the core of this Secretariat report (see listing of Advisory Group members on page 10). The Secretariat would like to thank each one of them for their extraordinary dedication and collegiality over the course of the last two years. The Secretariat would also like to thank the authors of the background papers that were developed as part of this process (see list on page 11) and the many government and public participants who provided comments at the workshop and the symposium. 3 A draft of this report was provided to the NAAEC Parties, the Advisory Group and the background paper authors for confi dential review and comment. Comments were received from Martin Adelaar, Jennifer Atlee, Alison Kinn Bennett, Odón de Buen, Guillermo Casar, Roger Peters, José Picciotto, Marta Niño Sulkowska, Leanne Tobias, Cesar Trevino, Douglas Webber, Jonathan Westeinde, and Fernando Mayagoitia Wintron. Environment Canada and the US Environmental Protection Agency provided additional comments from interagency reviews of the draft report. The CEC Secretariat would also like to thank Nils Larsson and Jean Cinq-Mars of iiSBE and Joel Ann Todd, a green building consultant, for their advice in designing the study, selecting the Advisory Group and authors of the background papers, and preparing for and conducting the fi rst Advisory Group meeting in June 2006. Finally, the Secretariat would like to thank the Secretariat staff members who helped in the development of this report. These include: Doris Millan, Sophia Noguera, Katia Opalka, José Otero, Paolo Solano, and Jeffrey Stoub. EXECUTIVE INTRODUCTION In this report, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) recommends that SUMMARY North American leaders make green building a foundational driver for environmental, social, and economic improvement in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. What is green building and how can it become such an important instrument for change? Green building1 refers to the use of environmentally preferable practices and materials in the design, location, construction, operation and disposal of buildings. It applies to both renovation and retrofi tting of existing buildings and construction of new buildings, whether residential or commercial public or private. By continually improving how we locate, design, build, operate, and retrofi t buildings, North American leaders can signifi cantly improve the well-being of North America. Advanced energy-saving technologies applied in buildings can result in enormous reductions in demand for fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Better design and building practices can also help address environmental challenges such as natural resource depletion, waste disposal, and air, water, and soil pollution. Green building can also help achieve gains in human health and prosperity. Despite this potential for transformation, green building represents only a small percentage of building in North America. By some estimates, green building currently accounts for about two percent of the new non-residential building market in the United States and 0.3 percent of the residential market. In Canada, green building trends are generally thought to be similar to those in the United States. In Mexico, there are no reliable fi gures showing the extent to which green building exists in the marketplace. Although the green building market is expected to grow rapidly in all three countries in the coming years, a substantial shift from the status quo is needed to make these high-performance buildings the norm in North America. GREEN BUILDING AND THE ENVIRONMENT In Canada, Mexico, and the United States, commercial and residential building operations account for about 20, 30, and 40 percent of the primary energy consumption, respectively. They typically also account for 20 to 25 percent of the landfi ll waste and 5 to 12 percent of the water consumption. The United States Green Building Council estimates that green building, on average, currently reduces energy use by 30 percent, carbon emissions by 35 percent, water use by 30 to 50 percent, and generates waste cost savings of 50 to 4 90 percent. GREEN BUILDING IN NORTH AMERICA: GREEN BUILDING IN NORTH Substantial research supports the health and productivity benefi ts of green features, such as daylighting, increased natural air ventilation and moisture reduction, and the use of low-emitting fl oor carpets, glues, paints and other interior fi nishes and furnishings. In the United States, the annual cost of building-related sickness is estimated to be at $58 billion. According to researchers, green building has the potential to generate an additional $200 billion annually in the United States in worker performance by creating