(CS3.2) Carbon Counts: Quantifying the Value of Existing Building Stewardship

Existing building stewardship is a powerful force for climate action by addressing carbon in existing buildings. Carbon in the atmosphere is one of the key drivers of climate change, and the building sector possesses a massive opportunity to drive down carbon emissions. Existing buildings provide a huge opportunity to address the climate crisis. Often the value of existing buildings is in intangible measures, including sense of place and history as well as community connection. However, there are objective metrics that further cement the value of existing buildings, one of the most impactful being embodied carbon.

This presentation will demonstrate quantifiable evidence illustrating how existing building reuse can avoid additional carbon emissions. Calculating total carbon in buildings is becoming less of a mystery with many readily accessible, easy-to-use tools, including CARE Tool, an Architecture 2030 project, and epic, created by EHDD. This presentation will use case studies as real-world examples of existing building stewardship as actions to address climate change. This approach is twofold: (1) avoiding additional embodied carbon emissions by preserving existing buildings and selectively renovating and building new components; and (2) reducing operational carbon emissions through deep energy retrofits appropriate and sensitive to the conditions of the building.

By proving the recommended response to climate action reasons for reusing existing buildings will lead to increased existing building stewardship and further deepen the sense of place and history in communities while addressing the immediate need for climate action.