A silver bullet for global warming

A silver bullet for global warming

BY BRENDA KREBS
bkrebs@MiamiHerald.com

Architect Edward Mazria aims to increase buildings' energy
efficiency and end our dependence on coal.

Buildings and their need for power
are the single largest producer of
greenhouse gas emissions, and
architect Edward Mazria has
made it his mission to solve this
problem.

In 2002, he founded Architecture 2030, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with the goal of
changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed.

Last week in Miami, he made the urgency of this mission crystal clear to South Floridians when
he premiered a Google Earth-based animation depicting how even a relatively small rise in sea
level could drastically alter metropolitan Miami and other coastal cities around the state and
across the nation.

Speaking to business and community leaders gathered Monday at the InterContinental Hotel,
Mazria pointed out how even as little as a one-meter rise in sea level can devastate whole cities.
"The fact that the people in Florida are not outraged [about global warming] is beyond
comprehension," he said.

RAISING AWARENESS
Mazria's presentation was part of a day of global-warming awareness hosted by the Southern
Alliance for Clean Energy. The images he and his team at Architecture 2030 created were
incorporated into a four-minute video, which was also shown to the public at a panel discussion
held Monday night at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach. SACE joined Faiths United for
Sustainable Energy to present the discussion.

While South Floridians have special cause for concern, Mazria pointed out that the rest of the
nation should also take note since 53 percent of all Americans live in and around coastal cities.
"That the populace of this country is sitting back with what is happening at the poles is just mind
boggling," he said.

SOLUTION PROPOSED
Despite the shocking images and dire words, Mazria outlined a clear-cut plan for solving not only
the problem of greenhouse gas emissions but also the slumping U.S. economy.
"There is a silver bullet," he told the group gathered at the InterContinental. "No more coal."

In a coastal impact study that he co-authored with Kristina Kershner, Mazria notes that
buildings account for 48 percent of energy consumption and building operations are responsible
for 43 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Add to this the facts that 76 percent of all
electricity produced at U.S. power plants goes to buildings and that coal is a major source of
inexpensive energy at these plants, and you can see the dilemma.

So, Mazria argues, make buildings more energy efficient and there won't be a need for additional
coal-fired power plants.

As for recent economic woes in the United States, construction is one of the few industries that
can't be outsourced, Mazria pointed out. With a projected need of 33 million new buildings over
the next 30 years, there will be plenty of work to go around, thus spurring the economy.

The added cost of constructing energy-efficient buildings takes care of itself in energy savings in
the first few years of a building's life, Mazria stated.

Supporting Mazria's cost analysis was luncheon attendee Rob Hink, a senior
executive of the Spinnaker Group and a leader in green building in South Florida. He pointed to
the recent rapid growth in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified
buildings in the area. In 2007, there were fewer than 10, he said. This year, more than 40 are in
the works.

Mazria's findings also met with approval from Jim Murley, director of the Center for Urban and
Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University.

NEW RULES NEEDED
"We've had the wrong focus," Murley said. Legislation has focused on creating building codes
sound enough to fortify structures against the worst hurricanes, which may occur only once
every 500 years, he said. And yet energy-efficiency standards fall by the wayside, he added.

Also voicing his support of Mazria's study was Harvey Ruvin, chairman of the Miami-Dade
Climate Change Task Force and a member of Florida Energy Commission, who also
participated in the evening panel discussion at Temple Beth Sholom.

While the projections of potential sea-level rise were quite disturbing, Ruvin focused on the positive.

"This is the greatest opportunity in a long time for idealism to find a useful path," he said.

VARIOUS VOICES
Other panel members included Jon Paul Bacariza, an expert in green building; Joe Naroditsky, executive director of Faiths United for Sustainable Energy; Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy; and Hal Wanless, chairman of the Geological Sciences Department at the University of Miami.

Bacariza's comments about the rapid growth in South Florida of LEED-certified buildings echoed Hink's observations. "Miami has been slow to catch on, but in the last three years, the number of LEED buildings has quadrupled," he said.

And that's a good thing. Mazria said that NASA climatologist James Hansen will be releasing a new study on global warming in San Francisco on Tuesday, stating that he believes we are already past the tipping point.