Edward Mazria has written an open letter to architects and others responsible for the design of the built environment. He begins the letter as follows:
“Architecture 2030 is calling on all architects, planners, engineers, and those responsible for designing and constructing the built environment worldwide, to design all new buildings, renovations, landscapes, cityscapes, and infrastructure to be zero carbon beginning right now.”
To that end, Mazria proposes the following steps:
Step 1: Design to ASHRAE 90.1 2019 and IECC 2021 (or better), regardless of local/state codes, which are typically far less progressive.
Step 2: Design all-electric buildings that do not use natural gas, propane, fuel oil, or any other fossil fuel on site.
Step 3: Reduce embodied carbon by re-using existing buildings (and utilizing other strategies).
I would argue that there is a basic, preliminary step, a Step 0 that precedes Mazria’s three steps:
Step 0: Image a future in which the economy and the practice of architecture are not built on the concept of endless growth, which is the antithesis of sustainability on a planet with finite resources.
Here is Edward Mazria’s open letter.