In order to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, we must reduce global emissions by at least 65% within the next decade—an ambition which cannot be achieved through a sole focus on the operational carbon of new high-performance buildings.
Elaine Hoffman, AIA, LEED AP, CPHC and Lori Ferriss, AIA, PE expound upon this issue in their article, “Defining the ‘Smart’ Energy Retrofit,” in which they discuss methods of carbon reduction at a heritage campus with an ambitious climate action plan.