Category: Comm_Buildings_MN

Cement production is one of the highest-emitting industrial sectors, responsible for about 6 to 7 percent of global CO₂ emissions. About 40 percent of the emissions come from the fossil-fuel combustion used to power the precalciners and kilns in cement plants, the rest from a chemical reaction inherent in cement making.

Construction is directly or indirectly responsible for almost 40 percent of global CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion and 25 percent of GHG emissions as a whole. These figures include materials such as cement and steel.¹ Within buildings, heating and cooking currently produces 6 percent of global emissions.

Steel companies quick to decarbonize their operations may be better placed to capture new market opportunities in the long term.

The tantalizing idea behind solar windows is that the vertical surfaces on the outside of just about any building could unobtrusively generate electricity.

The other day I visited a friend and client who is based in Seattle’s Bullitt Center, which is known as the greenest commercial building in the world. How green is it?
Rainwater (and Seattle has plenty of that) is collected on the roof, stored in an underground cistern, and used throughout the building.

Chemical engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago are investigating new methods to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from cement manufacturing.
Cement is one of the most widely used building materials, but its production is responsible for up to 8% of global emissions from carbon dioxide, representing a major challenge to the goal of reducing climate change. Despite ongoing efforts to research renewable energy options and new cementation methods, there is currently no clear pathway to carbon-neutral cement manufacturing.

It keeps happening. Every summer, unprecedented heat surges through cities across the United States—in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho; in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio; and in Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey. Last week, a heat wave melted records in Texas with unrelenting highs well into the 100s for days. And just when residents need it most, the electrical grid fails. Every year, hundreds die from heat-related illness in the U.S., and thousands more end up in emergency rooms from heat stress. Compared to other weather-related disasters, the emergency response to extreme heat from U.S. leaders has been minimal. As a result, many places remain unprepared. How, then, do we make our cities more resilient?

The United Kingdom declared a national emergency this week during a historic heat wave that’s melted runways, snarled train travel and shattered temperature records. The devastation has been particularly acute in a country like England, where 95 percent of the population lacks air conditioning.

As climate change makes heatwaves more common, NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Brigitte Clements, from the Architects Climate Action Network, about what cities like London can do to adapt infrastructure.

“Environmental awareness and climate change is impacting what buyers are looking for in a home and how they want to live. That’s clear in this research,” says Amanda Pendleton, a home trends expert at Zillow, a real estate marketplace.