Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Debating Tall
Author(s): Lester Partridge and Chris Drew
Source: CTBUH Journal , 2021, No. 3, Special Issue: Carbon (2021), p. 5
Published by: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
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Debating Tall
Net-Zero Tall by 2030?
Via the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Declaration, cities such as New York, Tokyo,
and Paris have committed to ensuring new buildings operate at net-zero carbon by 2030. Considering that many of
the signatory cities have numerous tall buildings planned, under construction, or already existing, there must also be
a sense of urgency within the tall building community. We asked thought leaders in the CTBUH network, “Will all new
tall buildings be net-zero by 2030?”
YES (or offset) only green energy, as they do not has steadily grown, and with this has come
Lester Partridge have adequate generating capacity on-site. an evolution of our definitions, priorities, and
Director, LCI Consultants, Sydney carbon reduction strategies.
To achieve net-zero for a tall, modern,
According to the World Green Building conditioned building, there will always be a Here’s what’s changed: Energy cost saving is
Council, a net-zero building is “a highly requirement for grid supply. To be “net-zero,” no longer the appropriate metric for energy
energy-efficient building that is fully this grid must source all its power from saving. A building in Vancouver, heated by an
powered from on-site and/or off-site renewables, green hydrogen piped through efficient gas boiler, has a lower heating bill
renewable energy sources and offsets.” A an existing gas network, or both. than if it were heated by an electric boiler, but
low-rise building has a better chance of its carbon emissions will be higher, because
being self-powered from renewable sources So, yes, there is a chance that all new tall the local grid is mostly supplied from
than a tall building. This is due to the ratio of buildings will be net-zero by 2030, but only if hydroelectric generation. We now
roof area available for PV arrays to the they are fully powered from off-site renewable increasingly recognize the importance of
building floor area, approaching 1.0 for a energy sources and offsets. The real challenge embodied carbon, and critically, in the period
one-story building. will be upgrading the network before 2030. over which these emissions take place—100
And this will be highly dependent on the percent of initial embodied carbon is emitted
However, as height increases, the ratio of country operating that grid. before the building is occupied. The design
roof to floor area reduces, and so does community is increasingly aware that
energy production per unit of floor area. NO electricity grids are getting cleaner and less
Consider the relationship between building Chris Drew carbon-intense every year. And, ongoing
height and the required off-site renewable Director of Sustainability, Adrian Smith + reporting of climate-related natural disasters
PV array size needed to power both the Gordon Gill Architecture, Chicago has brought the climate crisis into sharp
base building and tenant loads. Even on a focus as an immediate problem.
30-story, 40,000-square-meter high- The C40 net-zero pledge refers entirely to
efficiency building, a 50,000 square-meter Scope 1 and 2 operational emissions, and This combination is leading to a shift in
PV array would be required to achieve so my answer is “probably not, although priorities. We now make decisions based on
net-zero carbon, and this is not even they should be.” Importantly, “net-zero” must the “currency” of carbon. Should I really
considering embodied carbon. be redefined to consider life cycle carbon, hyper-insulate my façade, knowing that the
and not operational carbon in isolation. embodied carbon cost will never be
To approach net-zero, our current building recovered as operational carbon saved?
technology needs to become more We are in a transition period for Unless increasing embodied carbon can save
efficient. Even if these components reach sustainability at the moment. For a long embodied carbon somewhere else, the
theoretical efficiency limits of 100 percent, time, energy savings were seen in terms of operational carbon-saving argument pales.
energy is still needed to simply move air, energy cost savings, a proxy for “carbon
water, or electrons. Despite great advances saving” and a synonym for “sustainability.” Before 2030, C40 and Architecture 2030 will
in plant energy efficiency, commercial The ultimate goal was to have a building need to have redefined their goals. We need
buildings are still unable to operate without that had the lowest possible energy to start considering whole-building life-cycle
connection to an external grid-connected demand, to be met by on-site renewable carbon emissions. There’s even a reasonable
utility energy service, or on-site fossil power generation. However, the collective argument for adding a weighting factor to
fuel-powered generators. To achieve understanding of the root cause of climate prioritize reduction of upfront embodied
net-zero carbon, tall buildings must import change—atmospheric CO2 concentration, carbon emissions.
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