Renewable Energy in conventional vs green buildings

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone ProjectThe world’s demographic index is rapidly increasing. Every country’s evolvement is affecting one another, especially the environment and the world. This is not always affected by every single country, since some countries are more advanced in technology and resources than others, but most of the world is depending on high amounts of fossil fuels to self-sustain cities and countries. As such, by now it is well informed that the world is being constantly affected on the actions people aren’t acknowledging, such as living a great lifestyle without the affection and knowledge that the world is coming apart. Global warming and climate change are subjects that have progressively been enduring their importance around the world. The most challenging part of this progression is that it has not been accepted around the world. Some countries are not taking climate change seriously and it the world depends on it. For instance, one of the main branches of pollution and the burning of fossil fuels is construction. The carbon footprint of a building is higher than most consuming activities. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) ‘Buildings and their construction together account for 36 percent of global energy use and 39 percent of energy related carbon dioxide emissions annually.’ (https://archive.curbed.com/2019/9/19/20874234/buildings-carbon-emissions-climate-change) However, this is being revolutionized in some countries in the world such as Sweden, Denmark, and China, where the majority of buildings are net zero, have already applied certain regulations to their buildings and the way they are designed and built. On the other hand, countries like Peru, Argentina, or Chile have the least number of buildings designed and built to reach the net zero goal. The regulations described above mention the LEED, EDGE, BREAM certifications that are given to certain buildings that achieve certain sustainable goals, and these buildings are mainly designed to be self-sustainable, withdrawing energy from renewable sources such as solar panels, hydropower, wind energy, geothermal energy, and biogas. In addition, Peru is a country that has slowly but surely gotten into the business of sustainable buildings and renewable energy, where companies have now introduced the construction of green buildings running on renewable energy, or simply buildings that are sustainable to a certain degree.This item is part of the Sustainable Built Environments collection. For more information, contact http://sbe.arizona.edu