By Zack Semke

Green buildings are often overlooked in discussions surrounding a transition to clean energy. Many consider this a major mistake since buildings are responsible for over a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. More importantly, recent advances in the field of building science position buildings as technologies that can be optimized for performance and cost, much like wind, solar, batteries and electric vehicles. It is up to designers and builders to propel the clean energy transition forward.

Energy Used as Technology

Renewable energy plays a role in creating and designing green buildings.
Photo Credit: NK Architects

Green building transition is happening now is because energy-efficient technologies are more accessible and less expensive than fossil fuels. By contrast, construction projects that rely heavily on extractive industries like oil, gas and coal, are using outdated and expensive methods to complete projects on time.

“We are now facing globally one energy market with two suppliers. One of those suppliers is technology-based with falling cost,” said Michael Parker, an energy equity analyst at New York-based AllianceBernstein. “The other supplier relies on extraction, which has a rising cost structure.”

If we assume that the cost of solar energy storage will fall in price by 3 percent a year and electricity costs from fossil fuels will increase by 3 percent a year, then by 2030 the cost of solar energy will be more appealing than methods using fossil-fuels to generate power, according to estimates from AllianceBernstein.

The Power of Learning

The driver of the green building transition is learning, and learning by doing is the best way to improve performance and cost. This phenomenon is called Swanson’s Law, or the learning curve law. For the solar industry, Swanson’s Law says that for every doubling of solar capacity installed around the world, the price of solar panels will drop by 22 percent. Because global solar capacity has been doubling every two years fairly consistently for decades, the price impact of all this learning is staggering. Since 1977 the cost per watt of solar panels has declined by 99.6 percent, from $76 per watt to just $0.30 per watt.

Using Green Buildings to Mitigate Climate Change

Builders and designers can use green buildings and sustainable strategies to mitigate climate change. As Climate Tracker Initiative states, the path to climate security is through fossil fuel demand destruction. As we destroy demand for fossil fuels, the price for fossil fuels falls. This makes extraction a money-losing venture, so oil, gas, and coal stay in the ground. The key question, then, is how can we accelerate this demand destruction through the use of green buildings?

The first step includes using more sustainable components to complete the design of buildings. By incorporating options for new buildings to be powered by wind and solar energy, the cost

of those forms of energy decreases, which increases demand for them and consequently makes them more available to consumers.
Since green building trends have taken ahold of the mainstream construction market, the top priority of an architect or general contractor should be creating long-term sustainable strategies and buildings designed to improve the planet.

Zack Semke is the chief marketing officer at NK Architects, a Seattle and Pittsburgh-located architecture firm. He can be reached at 206-933-1150.