Pew Center Investigates Buildings

The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has released “Towards a Climate-Friendly Built Environment,” a report examining the relationship between buildings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Written by a team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the report notes that “simply bringing current building practices up to the level of best practices would yield tremendous energy and cost savings,” but that both an integrated approach and a broad view of the building sector are needed. The report also stresses the role of government: “Buildings in the U.S. could become net low-GHG energy exporters [in the next 50 years],” according to the Pew Center, “but government policies are essential to provide clear policy direction in order to drive the massive public and private investments and choices necessary to enable such a future.” The full report can be downloaded from www.pewclimate.org.