Living Building Chronicle

Nearly 50% More Zero Energy Buildings Underway in 2017

Ken Edelstein

Living Building Chronicle

Sixty-seven of them have now been “verified” in the U.S. and Canada, according to a recent report from the New Buildings Institute. Another 415 are underway or are being evaluated for net-zero performance, according to the report, the 2018 Getting to Zero Status Update.

Fifteen months ago, NBI reported 53 buildings as verified, while 279 were “emerging.” That works out to a 26 percent increase in verified buildings and a startling 49 percent hike in the emerging category in just over a year.

The numbers amount to a tiny fraction of the 6 million plus commercial buildings in the United States and Canada. But those in the trenches of the nascent movement to eliminate fossil-fuel use of buildings — which are among the world’s largest sources of greenhouse gases — hope they’re at the turn of a “hockey-stick-style transformation.

To read more of Ken Edelstein’s article click here.

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