Climate Adaptation: Building Reuse is Climate Action: Summaries and Resources

Making a case to leverage existing and historic buildings for zero net carbon

Summary List of Benefits of Focusing on Existing & Historic Buildings:

Increase overall sustainability and resilience;
Improve community place-making and continuity;
Increase achievement of social and cultural objectives such as inclusivity and commemoration;
Reduce urban intensification impacts and costs;
Heritage generates jobs and income and avoids waste from demolition;
Retrofitting existing buildings offers the most substantial emissions reductions over time.

Summary List of Recommendations:

Dramatic acceleration of context-sensitive rehabilitation of the massive stock of existing, abandoned and heritage properties;
Bring forward policies and programs to further enhance the feasibility and attractiveness of deep green rehabilitation to existing and historic buildings;
Energy Code for Existing Buildings to be adopted into the BC Building code: launch before 2024 if possible;
Policy tools that help remove obstacles for building reuse and remove barriers to retrofit and retrofit policies;
Consider a range of tax benefits for existing and historic building renewal that decreases carbon emissions;
Policy levers that enhance sustainable finance for decarbonizing rehab/retrofit for existing & historic buildings;
Engage conservation professionals with experience in new interventions into existing buildings to assist with policy and program development;
Collaborate with Heritage BC to review policy and program proposals, to ensure conservation community input is considered and existing & historic buildings are optimally decarbonized while protecting and leveraging their values.

Other resources and authors

Architects Climate Action Network. The Carbon Footprint of Construction: a case for regulating embodied carbon in construction to significantly address the impact of the industry on the climate. 2021
Hallé, Renée. Renewing UBC’S Campus. Carleton University, November 14, 2019. PowerPoint Presentation.
Heritage BC. “Making a Case for Building Conservation.” Heritage BC Learning Centre. Making a Case for Heritage: Building Conservation – Heritage BC
London Energy Transformation Initiative. LETI Embodied Carbon Primer: Supplementary Guidance to the Climate Emergency Design Guide. World Green Building Council, 2020.
Sanders, Helen. “Carbon Counting: Why ‘Embodied’ Carbon Matters.” US Glass Mag, August 2, 2019. https://www.usglassmag.com/insights/2019/08/carbon-counting-why-embodied-carbon-matters-part-1/
Thompson Brandt, Mark, and Cory Rouillard. “Climate Chaos and Heritage- Conservation Values: The Urgency for Action.” Traditional Building, October 2020. https://lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/article/Climate+Chaos+and+Heritage-+Conservation+Values%3A+The+Urgency+for+Action/3762040/673255/article.html