(Credit: Lateral Investment Management)The emissions resulting from retrofitting office buildings can be reduced by as much as 70% by tapping into smart technology, according to investment management company Lateral.
With the built environment responsible for 40% of greenhouse gases, with 11% of that consisting of embodied carbon, the environmental implications for retrofitting buildings is “alarming,” the investment manager says. Average retrofits to buildings are built to last about two-and-a-half years, while building retrofits designed with sustainability in mind can last between eight and ten years. Over a building’s 60-year lifecycle, that cuts its average number of retrofits from between 20 and 30 for a typically designed building to between six and eight for a redesign which incorporates sustainability, vastly reducing wastage and landfill.
When retrofits incorporate high quality design with the latest technology and flexibility, with an eye to improved operational efficiency, value is added for both landlords and tenants, Lateral says. After undergoing a sustainable retrofit, buildings can save as much as 70% of energy that would otherwise be emitted on top of the operational efficiencies the buildings embed.
Some of these technologies include architectural films, which can reduce a company’s heating and cooling costs, prefabricated construction methods, and a renewable energy infrastructure, writes Green Building Insider.
Real estate is one of the most wasteful sectors, with construction consuming 40% of the world’s natural extracted resources and sending about 13% of all new construction materials straight to landfill, says Rob Beacroft, director of Lateral. “Although the real estate industry is always looking at ways to reduce such environmental impact and climate change activity, there is still a huge lag in perception about how to do this, particularly in terms of existing buildings and affordability.”
In a recent global survey of commercial property professionals, more than half (55%) said demand for sustainable buildings has grown over the past 12 months (per edie.net).
