“More than half the world’s population, or 3.5 billion people, live in cities. By 2020, this number is expected to rise to 4.25 billion, and by 2030 to 5 billion. By 2030, a staggering 900 billion square feet of new building space will be constructed in cities worldwide (including the replacement of old buildings), an area equal to three times the total U.S. building stock. We have a choice. How we plan to build and rebuild our communities will determine whether this unprecedented growth will promote sustainability and enhance our quality of life, or accelerate environmental degradation and lead to increased human suffering.”
Seven years after ARCHITECT published “The Next Built Environment, Today (above),” Architecture 2030’s projections about the scale and importance of the building sector still hold true. On operational emissions, we have witnessed remarkable progress driven by the commitments, programs, and code improvements that the 2030 Challenge set in motion—most notably a sustained leveling of U.S. building sector energy consumption, as well as substantial CO2 emissions reductions in the building sector, despite adding 3 to 4 billion square feet to our building stock every year.
Since 2012, resources in low-carbon design, including the 2030 Palette and the AIA+2030 Online Series have launched and are in wide use. Joined by the China Accord, ZERO Code, ZERO Cities Project and more, these initiatives continue to be instrumental in driving building practice and policy to meet critical carbon reduction targets at the local, national, and international levels.
More than ever, we recognize the urgent need to expand our approach to mitigating the emissions associated with infrastructure and building materials, particularly in the face of the unprecedented construction and urbanization—an amount equivalent to doubling the world’s existing building stock over the next four decades. The CarbonPositive’20 Conference and Expo, to be held on March 2 – 4 in Los Angeles, will take action on the vision developed with the leadership of the AEC community, and share the means and methods for planning, designing, building, and manufacturing a built environment that goes beyond carbon neutral, today.
