Global Warming and the Built Environment

D.K. Prasad, R. Samuels

• Publisher: Spon Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781138408708
• eBook ISBN: 9781135814885
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Methods & Materials

The role of the built environment on global warming is seen to be of increasing relevance. In this book, contributors of international repute offer a wide perspectivet on the subject. This new paperback edition offers insights and techniques regarding design and management of buildings and urban settlement and discusses the issues of accountability and responsibility.

1

Environmental accountability: users, buildings and energy

Robert Samuels

1.1
Introduction

The global environmental malaise confronting us today is symptomatic of a human malaise: an attitude that individuals have a right to pursue the good life with no concomitant duty of care to ensure that future generations also partake of that good life. Whether or not an individual decides to moderate their consumption of resources, and take responsibility for the continuing quality of life, becomes an act of conscience, a quality notoriously deficient in the make-up of the human mind.

Sufficient empirical evidence of this global environmental malaise has, however, been accumulated which presents very powerful arguments for undertaking immediate precautionary measures as a minimum requirement. There is, moreover, a strong likelihood—given the observable behaviour of countless other lifeforms—that threshold points will be reached and breached in the planet's ability to adapt. Chain reactions leading to the irreversible destruction of life-sustaining planetary systems can no longer be dismissed as the ravings of environmental activists. It is the international scientific and intellectual community which is now at the forefront of the ‘green movement’. This book bears witness to the commitment of leading built-environment experts to identifying the impact of the built environment on environmental quality, and, most importantly, to suggesting solutions based on their accumulated experiences and expertise.

1.2
Conflicts of interest

Detractors, inevitably, exist. There are claims that the evidence for greenhouse warming accumulated by the IPCC and other scientific bodies is being manipulated by them for ulterior motives. Industrialists, power utilities, and other vested interest groups assert that the evidence is too uncertain (and/or still within the range of normal climatic variation) to justify a commitment to greenhouse gas emission reduction targets and global or per capita ‘carbon budget’ allocations (and possible income and job losses). Assertions that economic disaster will result from meeting emission targets fail not only to account for benefits accruing from a vigorous renewable energy industrial sector, but also to admit to the inherent uncertainty in economic modelling. Assumptions about population growth, per capita energy use and consumer attitudes to energy and the environment, and predictions of energy prices are all suspect— witness the extreme volatility of oil prices over the past two decades, not to mention the relative indifference of consumers to energy price changes. Maintenance of comfort, convenience and lifestyle standards appear to dominate user behaviour. There is uncertainty in climatic modelling, but uncertainty is also a major feature of economic and budget forecasts—and of political eventualities, scientific hypotheses, medical diagnoses and sub-atomic behaviour, or our comprehension of the origin of the universe! Nothing is certain. We have no choice but to act within such ‘fortuitous constraints’, and trust that our assessments prove to be as ethical, accurate and justifiable as possible.

Added to this is the conflict of interest which separates the developed from the developing countries, each accusing each other of culpability (over-consumption vs. over-population). There is now a suggestion that carbon budgets should be allocated to nations on a basis of their historical per capita carbon emissions or ‘natural debt’, i.e. an apportionment half of which is based on population and half on gross national product. For such a carbon budget to succeed, hidden carbon subsidies need to be taken into account. A wide range of manufactured goods and materials are seemingly unrelated to carbon dioxide emissions but are implicitly dependent on fossil fuel combustion. [Methane (CH₄) released by coalmining represents a second-order carbon subsidy.] Included are chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides, the vast quantities of reinforced concrete required to build hydro-electric dams and nuclear power stations, the energy expended to obtain enriched uranium (U²³⁵) and, of course, the manufacture of thermal insulation materials (which play a role in energy efficiency) and of solar thermal parabolic dishes, or photovoltaic cells.

It can, further, be anticipated that those responsible for the major proportion of planetary pollution will attempt to trade-off, rather than limit, their emissions— via tradable levies with countries which are net carbon sinks, i.e. rich in forests and oceans—to avoid putting their own lifestyles at risk.

Ultimately, the argument that the cost of prevention is too high—given the relatively uncertain scientific basis upon which preventative action would have to be taken—can and must be countered with the argument that the costs which might have to be borne as a result of inaction are likely to be unsustainable. Continuing with a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario rather than adopting a ‘no-regrets’ risk management policy is to be avoided at all costs. Chaos theory tells us that unpredictability is real and that minor changes in initial states can lead to outcomes that are totally unanticipated—Lorenz's butterfly flapping its wings and creating a hurricane. We cannot afford the luxury of waiting for the most equitable and economically efficient response to be devised.

1.3
Environmental accountability

None the less, environmental accountability is a way of life, it seems, whose time has not yet come. Accountability is a strategy which is capable of gradually altering the values, expectations and behaviours of individuals and groups. If the costs to the environment are deducted from the benefits and profits resulting from its exploitation, as a matter of course, a real value for GNP, or individual project, can be attained. The extreme difficulty of putting a value on natural resources (Laird, 1991), such as clean air or water, or calculating the eco-loss sustained as a result of the extinction of a species or a rain forest, or the acidification of a lake, explains why environmental accounting seems so unattainable in practice. Environmental Impact Assessments have been around for decades, but these relate to individual projects, and are projections of possible scenarios within delimited parameters. Environmental accounting needs to deal with cross-sectorial and even cross-national interactional issues such as losses attributable to air pollution as a result of urbanization and vehicle use. Respiratory diseases and lead poisoning might ultimately be reckoned as costs of built environment development, but the lag between the emissions and the effects can be several decades, and pollution generated in a coastal city might be blown inland to downwind suburban areas—the western suburbs of Sydney being a case in point. Ironically, a growing medical service sector mobilized to cope with the consequences of urban air pollution might have the effect of increasing overall GNP growth as presently calculated.

Similarly, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions generated in British coal-burning power plants have acidified the forests and lakes of Scandinavia. And recently a huge tropospheric ozone cloud has been detected over central Brazil and parts of Africa, apparently caused by the burning of forests in Amazonia and of savanna grasslands in Africa. Indeed, while the northern hemisphere suffers the effects of acid rain, there are high levels of tropospheric ozone, as a result of biomass burning, over much of the southern hemisphere during parts of the year. Low level ozone is not only a greenhouse gas but is corrosive and can damage the tissue of plants and humans, and accelerate building corrosion.

Proving the source of a pollutant is notoriously difficult; and it is much like comparing chalk and cheese—short-term benefits and long-term costs are far removed from one another not only in time but in concept.

On the other hand, development that is sustainable, and the use of solar and renewable energy, should be given credit for the corresponding lack of disbenefits incurred. At local level, this could manifest as subsidies and tax rebates; at the global level, as a natural capital dividend in the GNP calculation.

Classical economics, however, defines productivity narrowly and equates gains with economic progress. 111 effects of such progress are concealed by labelling them ‘externalities’, and because they are difficult to measure, conveniently excluding them from the calculations. Consequently, much economic growth may be an illusion because of the failure to account for reduction in natural capital and damage to eco-systems.

The attitude that humankind is master of the planet is everywhere enshrined, and the next five billion people who will walk this earth in the next half-century will not be content to accept twentieth century ‘third world’ living standards. They too will expect to consume at the rate that post-industrial technocratic western nations consume. Currently 20% of the world's population consumes 80% of its resources. A five-to sevenfold increase in consumption of energy and goods will be needed to raise the consumption level in the developing world to that enjoyed in the developed world (Brundtland Report, 1987). Irrespective of the extent of energy efficiency measures introduced, a population twice the size and with sophisticated expectations will exert stresses on planetary eco-systems which are unimaginable today.

Human nature has not shown itself to be particularly amenable to foregoing opportunities for immediate and personal gratification in order that anonymous individuals who might live a half-century hence might enjoy similar opportunities. The belief that technological advances will assure the continual discovery and exploitation of natural resources, or that the soil can continue to be doctored and plants genetically engineered to provide ever increasing quantities of food, must surely be a mind-set that will prove, in time, to be spurious. Notwithstanding, there are no limits to growth built-in to national economic agendas, and annual GNP growth is a priority in all nation states irrespective of their politico-economic ideology. And even proactive sustainability ideologies assume that human use of the environment inevitably degrades it, and that the goal is to limit this destruction. Improving the quality of the environment does not seem to be recognized as a practical reality—albeit ethically desirable—or it is likely to be rejected as utopian, if not irreligious.

At the same time, as advances in computer modelling improve predictability (by simulating the role of oceans, ice masses, etc., more adequately) and/or if natural catastrophes continue to multiply, it can be expected that more and more decision-makers will be convinced of the necessity to stabilize growth and energy use, or even to target reductions in the next century. One area open to manipulation is the built environment, since its design and use have a significant impact on the quality of the natural environment and, most importantly, this impact can be moderated by intelligent and benign design without reductions in lifestyle expectations and standards. The aptitudes and attitudes of the users of the built environment have a significant impact on their habitual and unselfconscious behaviours, or ‘environmental roles’ in those environments. The goal of this book is environmental education— to provide pointers along the way to accountability and sustainability by providing models and strategies that are achievable and believable. Intergenerational equity and planetary stewardship cannot be attained unless and until the relationship between users and the built environment is renegotiated.

A judicious mix of legislation, education and persuasion can still ensure that the planet survives us. Dr Seuss chronicled the rape of the environment in a book written for six-year olds, some 20 years ago (Figure 1.1). The ‘Lorax’ spoke for the forest, but the determination of the industrialist to grow rich converting the leaves of the trees into ‘thneeds’ eventually destroyed the forest for everyone, industrialist included. The message is the same today: no economy without environment. And the Lorax leaves behind a poignant note, engraved in stone, a single word: ‘Unless’. Unless we care, unless we act, all is lost.

We can, at the very least, ensure that environmental education and environmental restoration are part and parcel of every child's and student's conceptual framework.

1.4
Social and environmental responsibility

Social and environmental responsibility in terms of the built environment encompasses two major themes of benign design: solar efficient design (SED) and ecologically sustainable design (ESD). The fundamental principle underlying both is interactivity—the mutual interdependence of all environmental systems; and the fundamental activator is energy—the product (almost exclusively) of burning fossil or fissile fuels.

Built environment systems are accountable for: the energy utilized in a vast range of primary extractive processes and the energy embodied in manufactured building materials; the energy consumed in building construction processes; the energy consumed in the day-to-day operation of buildings (heating, cooling, lighting and servicing); the energy expended in building maintenance and, ultimately, during the demolition of the building. On the one hand, the reusability/recyclability of building materials is a plus in the energy-environment interaction, while, on the other, the management of the waste produced by users of the built environment (and the hazardous wastes produced by industrial, chemical and power-producing processes) is an intractable issue of gargantuan proportions.

Figure 1.1 The Lorax. (Source: Seuss (1971) The Lorax, Collins, London. Published with the kind permission of Theodor S.Geisel and Audrey S.Geisel.)

Over and above the issue of the energy consumed to air-condition buildings, the refrigerant devices themselves are CFC-driven, and airconditioning thus has a dual potential to exacerbate global warming. Paradoxically, in a warmer world, comfort requirements will presumably be met by increasing the use of air-conditioners. Similarly, albeit indirectly, a considerable proportion of furniture, both domestic and commercial, is foam-blown, a procedure again reliant on the use of CFCs.

The role of forests in the maintenance of global climatic stability is fundamental, not only because they are carbon sinks but also because tropical forests are vital in the global evaporative cycle which distributes heat away from the equator towards the poles. The use of wood, as biomass for fuel, as timber for construction and furnishing, as paper for a myriad of uses, and, indirectly, in the form of coal and oil, spans most sectors of industrial and traditional economies. Moreover, woodland is often cut-back to accommodate expanding cities, the effect of which is to reduce the carbon storage capacity of the earth. However, where the wood is used as timber, carbon is locked up in the built structure and is, thus, removed from the atmosphere (until bacterial decay ultimately has its way). A sustainable plantation policy which ensures that forests are planted and harvested like other crops, might come to be considered as a rational compromise, albeit inimical to the maintenance of fauna biodiversity in those areas. If coupled with the outlawing of rain forest logging, and/or a firm refusal to import rain forest timber, the rational use of plantation timber as a built environment material could be acceptable, given that wood is both a renewable energy source and a carbon sink.

The use of thermal mass as a bioclimatic or climate-appropriate building technique needs to be evaluated in the light of the considerable amount of energy embodied in the materials themselves (concrete, brick, etc.) and the operational energy saved over the life cycle of the building.

The energy and environmental costs and benefits of a super-insulated but lightweight, timber construction needs to be weighed up against the case for thermal mass (in the appropriate climate, naturally, and thermal comfort issues aside). It is feasible, however, to employ a mix of materials, in domestic construction particularly—a heavy/massive ground floor/ living area and a lightweight, well insulated and well shaded first-floor/bedroom area, for instance. Moreover, the indiscriminate use of mass in a building is not rational. A strategic location of mass is required. Locating mass on the equator-facing or sunny side of a building but not on the sunless side appears to be a rational response, but does not seem to have been exploited by designers of passive solar buildings.

This extensive list of SED and ESD issues referred to above does not even begin to exhaust the energy-environment interrelationships inherent in the built environment. Each building exists in a context of other buildings, with an urban, suburban, regional and rural infrastructure of agricultural, industrial, commercial, governmental, and residential facilities linked by a ubiquitous transportation network which permits the movement of people, goods, services and food between those buildings. Urban design, vehicle design, building design, appliance design, etc, all are intimately related.

Metropolitan design policies and public transportation provision play a fundamental role in the energy-environment interaction. The prevalent philosophy in countries suffering the consequences of unbridled postwar suburban sprawl is focused on the notion of ‘mixed uses or mixed zoning’. Socio-sp...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Professional Development Foundation
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Environmental accountability: users, buildings and energy
• 2 Environmental auditing and the built environment
• 3 Human use of renewable energy to improve the global environment in the post-Brundtland era
• 4 The greenhouse effect and future urban development
• 5 Urban design, transportation and greenhouse
• 6 Sustainable development, energy policy issues and greenhouse
• 7 Energy and architectural form
• 8 Environmentally benign architecture: beyond passive
• 9 Energy efficiency and the non-residential building sector
• 10 Principles of energy efficient residential design
• 11 Technological options and sustainable energy welfare
• 12 Materials selection and energy efficiency
• Index