Climate change is one of the biggest threats we face today, as I wrote in a previous blog about ‘Zero-Carbon Buildings’. Clearly we need to reduce CO2 emissions globally to zero, or to less than zero, to address climate change. We need to approach this in two ways: radical energy efficiency to reduce demand and de-carbonisation of energy generation, in other words, a massive scaling-up of renewable energy generation.*

In some situations these two approaches are going to manifest as ‘Zero-Carbon Buildings’ or ‘Net-Zero Energy Buildings’. Even though there are many reasons why this is the wrong target (and if you read the comments you’ll find there are more than just the 9 reasons I wrote about.)

What then, is the best approach to achieving these notional targets of ‘Zero-Carbon Buildings’ or ‘Net-Zero Energy Buildings’?

Passivhaus First is the best approach and I explore why in this blog.

014 Zero Carbon Buidings Passivhaus First
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Climate change is one of the biggest threats we face today. Clearly we need to reduce CO2 emissions globally to zero, or to less than zero, to address climate change. And architecture in the anthropocene must change to address this challenge, as I have written about in my manifesto. Buildings must emit radically less CO2 during construction and occupation. This often leads to the assumption that we should be delivering ‘Zero-Carbon Buildings’. However, this is the wrong target for buildings, radical energy efficiency is the right target for buildings.

In this blog post I explore 9 reasons why ‘Zero-Carbon Buildings’ is the wrong target and what the right targets are.

012 Zero Carbon Buildings Wrong Target
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