#27 Retrofitting
#27 Retrofitting
The forgotten part of making buildings green
Read time: 4 minutes
In this week’s issue you will learn about how crucial it is to make existing buildings more sustainable: Retrofitting
“Investing $279 billion in retrofitting buildings in the US would yield more than $1 trillion in energy savings over 10 years” - Rockefeller Foundation and Deutsche Bank
Top Retrofitting News 🗞️
Hot topic: At the International Energy Agency (IEA) conference in Paris, retrofitting buildings was one of the two key topics.
US Government: The White House just released more than $830 million in funding and $4 billion in loan commitment for the Inflation Reduction Act’s Green and Resilient Retrofit Program.
Gotta speed up: None of the world’s richest countries are retrofitting buildings fast enough. We need to go from a retrofitting rate of 1% per year to 2.5% per year.
Let’s dive in 🧠
Worldwide, buildings account for 32% of energy use and 19% of energy-related greenhouse emissions.
And much as 80% of the energy they consume is wasted (lights left on unnecessarily, poor insulation, etc.).
We can clearly see there is something wrong with buildings aka “built environment” when it comes to climate.
To respond to that, much of the attention being paid to green buildings is in new design construction. There are many different standards, like LEED and others, saying how to build well from the start.
That’s great but it’s not enough.
About 66% of the buildings that exist today will still be there in 2050 and, although usually more sustainable in the long-term, new construction tends to generate higher emissions than retrofitting existing buildings.
So what is retrofitting?
It’s the process of modifying an existing building to make it more energy efficient.
It’s mostly aimed at greatly reducing energy consumption in the first place by significantly improving the fabric of the building itself to increase its thermal performance and comfort.
But many more things contribute to that goal: Switching to LED lights, installing solar panels, switching to an electric boiler, etc.
Which leads to 2 main types fo retrofitting projects:
Shallow retrofit: It’s quite superficial. It may include adding some insulation in the roof and having a more efficient boiler for example.
Deep retrofit: Reduce energy use by at least 40%. Insulating some or all of your home including your walls, roof and floor and making sure the building is airtight. Upgrading windows and doors. Heat pump and mechanical ventilation heat recovery system installation. Etc.
What are the benefits of retrofitting?
Home value: Once you improve the energy efficiency of your home and receive a certification you will greatly improve the value and marketability of your home.
Savings: The payback on retrofits, depending on the building, is 5 to 7 years on average. After that, it’s all huge savings.
Jobs and emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions from existing buildings can be drastically reduced and millions of jobs will be created to do all of this retrofitting.
Remember, building from scratch allows us to make houses extremely sustainable much more easily but there’s another more sustainable and crucial option: Retrofitting existing buildings.
Challenges
Knowledge: Most people are unfamiliar with retrofitting terms and techniques so they really don’t know where to start. It usually starts by asking friends and family who have gone through it, but not many have.
Cost: Deep retrofits can cost over $70000 and Government incentives for retrofitting are not easily available in every country. Even though in the long-term it’s worth it, the upfront cost is really high.
Inconvenient: The process usually involves a lot of bureaucracy, dealing with different companies for the different aspects of the project, and taking lots of time to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Top Retrofitting Startups 💰
Enter 🇩🇪: They have homeowners complete a digital survey, then give them an assessment of the energy status of their building, and suggestions on how to reduce their inefficiencies. They also take care of the appropriate subsidy applications for renovations.
Greenworkx 🇬🇧: They have created a portal for green jobs that focuses on training/upskilling/reskilling people so they become skilled tradespeople that re-make our built environment to be energy efficient and drive down carbon emissions ASAP.
Ecoworks 🇩🇪: They do serial refurbishment of existing buildings that takes weeks instead of months. Their process uses digital scanning and planning and modular hardware solutions to have the shortest possible installation time.
❗Extreme knowledge area❗
Sustainable Buildings Glossary: A glossary to help you understand some of the most common and technical terms used in the world of sustainable buildings, planning, retrofitting, and construction.
Empire State Building retrofit: This case study is a role model for other large buildings to follow. The building has already cut emissions by 50% thanks to retrofitting and the plan is to reach net zero by 2030. It has already reached $4.4 million in energy savings and more than 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided.
That’s it for today, 1 climate tech topic in under 5 minutes.
Next week… Regenerative Agriculture! 🤯
If you enjoyed today’s issue, the best compliment you could pay me would be to share it with one person who you think would benefit from it :)