This Week’s News for LA’s Best Buildings
Cities Are Major Polluters: Can We Make Them Climate Neutral?
Around 85% of humanity will be living in cities by 2100. Many will inhabit sprawling megacities of more than 10 million people. But these urban jungles are climate killers. Built with high-emission steel and concrete, powered and heated with oil, coal and gas, cities are responsible for around 75% of global CO2 emissions.
The latest UN report proposing ways to address the climate crisis made special mention of cities. Urban building emissions — both operational and during construction — have risen by around 50% since 1990, according to the report. This means the sector must rapidly decarbonize if global heating is to remain within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
Key Takeaways for Commercial Real Estate from ‘Urgent’ IPCC Report
The world is warming faster than initially predicted, and decarbonization efforts, including in commercial real estate, are not progressing quickly enough to prevent its escalating effects, according to the latest report from the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
While many countries, governments and businesses have set decarbonization goals for 2050 — or 2030 at the earliest — the planet no longer has that much time, the report says. Emissions need to peak by 2025 for the Earth to remain under the 1.5-degree warming limit set at the Paris Agreement, according to the IPCC.
Ten Climate Fixes to Catch Up in the Race to Cut Emissions
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of researchers convened by the United Nations, makes it clear that it’s now or never if there is hope of containing the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5C.
We have the tools and insights to innovate our way there — but only if we go all-in right away. “It’s now or never,” said Jim Skea, co-chair of IPCC Working Group III.
Adaptive Reuse Could Offer 72,000-Unit Solution to LA County Housing Crisis
There are 2,300 underutilized hotels, office buildings and retail centers in LA County that could be better used as apartments, a new study says, and the impact of doing so could be massive.
The Rand Corp. study suggests that such conversions could create between 72,000 and 113,000 units of housing, depending on unit size, the Orange County Register reported.
Highlighting the Business Case for Net Zero Multifamily
During the 2022 ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, a panel discussion on “Getting Residential to Net Zero” began with real estate professionals sharing profiles of net zero projects, followed by a passionate discussion on the urgency to get real estate to net zero.
Krista Egger, vice president of national initiatives with Enterprise, posed the question, “What is important about net zero housing, [and] what matters to you about this approach?”
Image via stock&people