2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land - 104

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JULIE JANISKI
Return, Reuse,
Reinvest
How many new buildings do we
really need?
Buro happold (Bh) is an international
engineering and advisory firm
that began in the United Kingdom
45 years ago and now has offices in
over 25 cities and 12 countries. It has
a full-stack decarbonization capability
that spans its global practice,
working top-down in policy, ESG,
planning, and economics, as well as
bottom-up in systems engineering,
operational optimization, and commissioning.
Through its accumulated
experience and lessons learned
across a diverse array of subjects,
the BH team offers a few thoughts
on the decarbonization opportunity
awaiting the land use industry.
A return to density can maximize
the positive impact of shared infrastructure.
The
imperative to commit to density
is clear. Shared infrastructure-
from mobility to thermal energy-is
critical in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions from transportation, power
generation, industrial production,
heating, and more. In Massachusetts,
BH is continuing to work with
HEET-the Home Energy Efficiency
Team, a nonprofit climate solutions
incubator-on development of district
thermal energy systems and
their feasibility across socioeconomic
opportunities and challenges. Utility
companies Eversource and National
Grid are currently implementing pilot
programs in two city neighborhoods,
Framingham and Lowell, to evaluate
the performance of networked
geothermal systems, providing
fossil fuel-free thermal energy to
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URBAN LAND
customers in environmental justice
communities-those composed
predominantly of persons of color
or persons below the poverty line
and subjected to a disproportionate
burden of environmental hazards.
The reuse of existing buildings
can significantly limit new emissions
in the critical near term.
In most cases, the reuse of existing
buildings can result in a significant
amount of avoided greenhouse
gas emissions compared with reductions
provided through construction
of new buildings. Embodied carbon
emissions-those created from
material extraction, manufacturing,
transportation, and end of life-are
generated before the building is
occupied and do not change until
renovations take place.
Reinvestment with purpose can
attract tenants who prioritize climate
action and healthy spaces.
In many cases, capital cost or a
simple capital expenditures/operational
expenses return on investment
is used to evaluate options and make
decisions. BH believes that a more
integrated and multivariate framework
would also incorporate lifetime
cost implications, as well as carbon
reductions, benefits for health and
well-being, and other variables that
support a holistic understanding of
strategies like electric heating and
hot water, heat recovery, induction
cooking, and tenant preferences and
other tenant imperatives.
BH's work with Empire State
Realty Trust (ESRT), and the Empire
State Building itself, is tracking the
trust's commitment to achieve net
zero carbon across its portfolio by
2035 and at the Empire State Building
by 2030. For that initiative,
we are leading the development
of the " Empire Building Playbook:
SUMMER 2023
An Owner's Guide to Low Carbon
Retrofits, " a document that has also
informed the U.S. General Services
Administration's recommendations
for reducing greenhouse gas emissions
in federal buildings.
Key takeaways from our work
with ESRT include:
It is critical to right-size equipment
through close coordination with tenants
to avoid oversizing.
Detailed and whole-building
retro-commissioning helps identify
opportunities for automation and
optimization, additional data collection,
performance of fault detection,
and other parameters, all of which
contribute to efficient operations and
therefore carbon reduction.
Project teams need to understand
the capital planning lifecycle to support
decarbonization plans that avoid
like-for-like replacement where superior
options are available.
Envelope improvements to reduce
heating loads can be challenging yet
necessary, and piloting newer technologies
and solutions as early as
possible is beneficial.
If the transition to electric heating
is done correctly, peak electricity
demand is still in the summer
for the Empire State Building (and
most building types, as we found in
our all-electric feasibility study), and
avoiding peak demand in winter is
critical for life safety.
Given the ample supply of buildings
to return to, reuse, and reinvest
in-and lower their emissions-I don't
know how many new buildings the
world needs. However, I do know
the information needed to answer
that question is readily available, and
I hope answering it is at the top of
your next agenda. UL
JULIE JANISKI is a partner at Buro Happold, a global engineering
and advisory firm, and a sustainability practice leader.
2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land

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