[Greenbuilding] NYC 90% emissions cut with windows

[David Bergman]

Hi Corwyn,

The headline was probably intentionally 
exaggerated and didn't literally mean just 
windows and insulation. Here are some relevant excerpts from the article:

"The report takes as its starting point this 
foundational statistic: 75 percent of the readily 
measured carbon emissions in New York City come 
from buildings. That makes it very different from 
the nation as a whole, where agriculture and 
transportation are among the biggest culprits."

"To get those emissions under control will 
require three main steps, all difficult but none 
inconceivable. The first is probably the most 
ambitious and innovative: gradually retiring the 
city’s massive, aging steam heat system and 
replacing it with high-efficiency electric heat 
pumps. Low-rise residential buildings would get 
individual mini-split pumps, a relatively easy 
fix, while high-rises would need to convert from 
steam to central geothermal heat pump systems. ...

"It’s the third step, though, that may make the 
above possible: energy conservation. Here, the 
report isn’t asking residents to cut back­it 
refers to stripping waste and leakage to the bare 
minimum. Tweaks that seem small­insulation, 
plugging air leaks, heat-recovery ventilation, 
fluorescent lighting­loom big. New buildings in 
the city already include some of those measures. 
But the Urban Green Council’s plans would carry 
these standards to unprecedented levels­not just 
double-glazed windows, but triple-glazed 
windows­and apply them to existing buildings as 
well whenever they’re updated. That’s an awful 
lot of work, but the potential payoff is bigger than you might expect."

"It’s in service of this goal that the report 
makes one of the few suggestions that might raise 
New Yorkers’ hackles from a quality-of-life 
perspective: capping the percentage of 
see-through glass on high-rise buildings at 50 percent. "

"Even with all those changes to its buildings, 
the city would still need serious cuts in its 
emissions from transportation and waste to reach 
the grail of 90 percent by 2050. "
and it goes to point out that NYC's 
transportation emissions are a lot lower than 
most of the rest of the country due to the fact 
that so few NY'ers own and drive cars.

David
David Bergman  RA   LEED AP
DAVID BERGMAN ARCHITECT | FIRE & WATER LIGHTING
architecture . interiors . ecodesign . lighting . furniture
bergman at cyberg.com    www.cyberg.com
212 475 3106   twitter: @EcoOptimism

author - 
<http://ecooptimism.com/?page_id=58>Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide
blog - <http://www.ecooptimism.com/>EcoOptimism
adjunct faculty - Parsons The New School for Design


At 12:35 PM 3/18/2013, Corwyn wrote:
>I have a very hard time believing that 90% of 
>GHG emissions *even come from* window and insulation losses.
>
>I wish people wouldn't try to hype their 
>proposals by giving such numbers.  Huge savings 
>are possible, but at least try to make them look 
>plausible or they will be dismissed out of hand (as I did).
>
>Thank You Kindly,
>
>Corwyn
>
>--
>Topher Belknap
>Green Fret Consulting
>Kermit didn't know the half of it...
>http://www.greenfret.com/
>topher at greenfret.com
>(207) 882-7652
>
>
>
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