It’s been another productive year at the ZNCC, collaborating for climate change action in existing and in historic buildings!
MTBA are chartered members of the Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing & Historic Buildings (ZNCC) and Mark Thompson Brandt is the Co-Founder of the organization. Co-founding organizations include the RAIC, the AIA, Arch2030, ICOMOS and the APT. Other associated orgs include the Climate Heritage Network and New Buildings Institute. Co-Chair Lori Ferriss wrote this ‘year in review’ summary.
As Zero Net Carbon Collaboration (ZNCC) looks back on the 2021 year in review, we are proud to reflect on some of these accomplishments:
- We participated in COP26 with the Climate Heritage Network as co-coordinators of Working Group 3 on Building Reuse is Climate Action.
- We embarked on new partnerships and collaborations with the Passive House Accelerator and Passive House Canada.
- We strengthened existing relationships with the Carbon Leadership Forum and ICOMOS Canada.
- We developed case studies that illustrated the paired total carbon and cultural benefits of building reuse, with a goal to publish in 2022.
- We participated in the development of the 2Build or not 2Build Calculator – which is now the CARE (Carbon Avoided: the Retrofit Estimator) Tool, and has received both a ONEder grant from One Workplace and a Moe Grant from the U.S. National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The ZNCC continues it’s commitment to including Existing and Heritage buildings in the climate conversation. The alliance is committed to:
- Coordinating/monitoring technology development and integration for, and providing a unified resource for, the goal of responsibly bringing historic places to Zero Net Carbon (ZNC) and;
- Accelerating the ZNC of existing and historic buildings and places, accounting for both embodied carbon and operational carbon emissions, through developing leadership in best practices for the ZNC rehabilitation of most existing buildings, and in the responsible re-use of built resources in general.
Let’s hope 2022 brings even more—impactful steps towards understanding existing buildings’ role in fighting climate change!
You can learn more about the ZNCC initiative here: Zero Net Carbon Collaboration for Existing and Historic Buildings (znccollaboration.org)
