MTBA is being retained by public, NGO and private clients to help them plan for the decarbonization of the built environment. The following is an example of climate action that was launched at COP 26 in Glasgow. The Pacific Coast Collaborative includes the Province of British Columbia; Heritage BC retained MTBA to provide a white paper towards having existing and historic buildings brought into the conversation and action for that province’s Clean BC Roadmap to 2030.

The Pacific Coast Collaborative (PCC) announces the launch of the Low Carbon Construction Task Force, an effort between the states of California, Oregon, Washington, the province of British Columbia and the cities of Vancouver, BC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles to advance low carbon materials and methods in building and construction projects. The Task Force will create a shared regional strategy with the goal of accelerating innovation, investment, and market development for low carbon materials, by leveraging the scale of the Pacific Coast regional economy.

“British Columbia is a leader in low–carbon construction using innovative materials, like mass timber, to reduce our carbon footprint and support good jobs that create energy–efficient buildings(…) We’re working together with our partners in the Pacific Coast Collaborative to accelerate and expand climate actions through our new CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 – a plan that supports effective collaboration with other jurisdictions, First Nations, local governments and the private sector to reach our emissions targets and build a sustainable future for everyone.”

BC Premier John Horgan.

In August 2021, MTBA was retained to give voice to the concerns that existing and historic buildings were not being leveraged for their largest single contribution to decarbonization. Heritage BC asked MTBA to help provide their input to the “Clean BC Roadmap to 2030” process. Here are excerpts from the submission:

Conservation professionals have developed advanced relevant skillsets of questioning further, delving deeper into root causes, and probing wider to gain a clearer understanding of building renewal projects. Working with interventions to existing buildings – the single largest contributor to carbonization and Climate Chaos, has significant impact. The conservation community (can) take a leadership role in the “Race to Net Zero,” using its members’ expertise in “managing change to existing buildings while retaining value”. This work must address the required dramatic acceleration of context-sensitive rehabilitation of the massive stock of existing, abandoned and heritage properties. A large task will be the sustainable rehabilitation of heritage buildings from the modern era, which collectively, mainly due to their abundance, are the greatest greenhouse-gas “culprits”. The recent improvements in the understanding of embodied carbon in existing buildings underscores the necessity of recycling buildings rather than building new.

In 2030, 85% of existing buildings will still be standing and still be viable for use. This is a tremendous resource that requires global attention.

Climate Heritage Network

Life-cycle assessments helps us better understand how the choices of materials and decisions to reuse and rehabilitate can dramatically decrease our carbon footprint. Interestingly, “mainstream” architecture and green-building construction have just recently started to embrace the fact that to “slay the carbon dragon,” we need to be mostly focused on “deep green” rehabilitation of existing buildings, not new green buildings.

The Roadmap to 2030 must involve collaborative and strategic efforts by conservation professionals, particularly by those whose particular skills and leadership can provide major contributions to scaled-up decarbonization solutions for existing buildings.

In conclusion, we quote from the Climate Heritage Network’s¹ recent statement on the Architecture 2030 Communique, being developed for COP 26:

“Worldwide, built heritage is being lost to climate change at an alarming rate. Along with cherished structures and places, the legacy of its creators is also lost. Cultural and social bonds are being weakened at a time when greater strength and resilience is needed most. The most vulnerable are being impacted disproportionately. The loss of built heritage is not limited to the destruction of iconic structures, far from it. It also means the loss of everyday buildings that continue to serve essential human purposes, the very fabric of our cities and towns.

Even more alarming than the rate of building loss to climate change is the wanton destruction of millions of useful buildings in the name of progress – even in the name of climate action. The climate crisis demands that every source of carbon pollution be zeroed-out quickly. The world cannot afford to waste viable buildings. The first step in decarbonizing the building sector is to keep and use every building.

The quickest and surest path to a zero-carbon building sector is to conserve and appropriately adapt existing buildings. The principles and practices of heritage building conservation are of tremendous importance and usefulness as the world confronts climate change. They are the fundamental skillsets required to extend the low-carbon or zero-carbon service life of all existing buildings, not only heritage structures.“

List of Benefits of Focusing on Existing & Historic Buildings:

• Increase overall sustainability and resilience;
• Improve community place-making and continuity;
• Increase achievement of social and cultural objectives such as inclusivity and commemoration;
• Reduce urban intensification impacts and costs;
• Heritage generates jobs and income and avoids waste from demolition;
• Retrofitting existing buildings offers the most substantial emissions reductions over time.

Summary List of Recommendations:

• Include Heritage BC in the Existing Buildings Renewal Strategy;
• Dramatic acceleration of context-sensitive rehabilitation of the massive stock of existing, abandoned and heritage properties;
• Bring forward policies and programs to further enhance the feasibility and attractiveness of deep green rehabilitation to existing and historic buildings;
• Energy Code for Existing Buildings to be adopted into the BC Building code: launch before 2024 if possible;
• Policy tools that help remove obstacles for building reuse and remove barriers to retrofit and retrofit policies ;
• Consider a range of tax benefits for existing and historic building renewal that decreases carbon emissions;
• Policy levers that enhance sustainable finance for decarbonizing rehab/retrofit for existing & historic buildings;
• Engage conservation professionals with experience in new interventions into existing buildings to assist with policy and program development ;
• Collaborate with Heritage BC to review policy and program proposals, to ensure conservation community input is considered and existing & historic buildings are optimally decarbonized while protecting and leveraging their values.

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¹The Climate Heritage Network serves as a clearinghouse for a wealth of resources on stewardship and climate adaptation, including:

• project case studies for climate retrofits of heritage and existing buildings;
• retrofit guidelines based on building science;
• easy-to-use life-cycle carbon calculators factoring both operational and embodied emissions;
• policy models for protecting existing resources and building decarbonization.

Founded in 2019, the Climate Heritage Network is a voluntary, mutual support network of arts, culture and heritage organizations committed to aiding their communities in tackling climate change and achieving the ambitions of the Paris Agreement.

Additional reading by Mark Thompson Brandt can be found here: Buildings and stories: mindset, climate change and mid-century modern, Journal of Architectural Conservation 2017