Let's Builder Greener

Edward Mazria is an internationally-recognized architect, author, researcher, and educator with a long and distinguished career. His award-winning architecture and planning projects span over a 35-year period, each employing a cutting-edge environmental approach to design. He is the author of numerous published works, including the bible of solar design, The Passive Solar Energy Book, which is currently in use worldwide.

Architecture 2030, a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization, was established in response to the climate change crisis by architect Edward Mazria in 2002. 2030's mission is to rapidly transform the U.S. and global Building Sector from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate change, energy consumption, and economic crises. Our goal is straightforward: to achieve a dramatic reduction in the climate-change-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the Building Sector by changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed.

On April 18 at the Ford Motor Company in Irvine, Calif., the Urban Land Institute Orange County/Inland Empire chapter held its Best of the Best Awards. The keynote speaker of the day was Architecture 2030 founder and CEO Ed Mazria who addressed green building practices.

"How are we going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?" said Mazria. "It's not just wishful thinking or for those to discuss in the political arena. I believe that people in this room are going to be the ones to solve this problem."

Mazria said that there's two sides to the energy issue: supply and demand. In 2012 the world needed to use 542 Quadrillion BTUs, of which 452 came from fossil fuels. Hydroelectric accounted for 42, sun/wind for 19 and nuclear for 30. By 2030 the world will need 722 Quadrillion BTUs, so a bigger portion will be made up from hydroelectric and sun/wind power.

"The global urban built environment consumes 70 percent of energy," said Mazria. "By 2030 about 1.6 billion people will move to cities and urban areas. Over this time 900 billion square feet will be built in urban areas. That's about 3 1/2 times the size of the United States. Our entire world is going to be transformed over the next three decades."

Mazria challenged attendees, consisting of land planners, engineers, architects and landscape architects, to look at the building sector. The hope is to have the sector become carbon-neutral by 2030. Today we're at 60 percent. In this country the building sector is stepping up by building carbon-neutral sites at 2 to 3 billion per year.

"We're exceeding targets in the U.S. for energy consumption," said Mazria. "All the individual acts together have added up to huge numbers. It's an amazing opportunity for us to help save the planet."