Australian Efficient Building Scheme Allows Buildings to Trade Carbon Reductions
A new proposal from global real estate titan Lend Lease and WSP’s Lincolne Scott engineers shows the way for building energy retrofits and upgrades to create carbon reductions that can be traded. Called the “Efficient Building Scheme.” This is a new growth area for green building.
From Maria Atkinson at Lend Lease and Che’ Wall at Lincolne Scott, the Efficient Building Scheme is a proposal for a direct “cap and trade” scheme for building owners that would reduce building sector carbon emissions dramatically and must faster than even the supposed “agreement” at COP 15 in Copenhagen. According to the proposal, “An Efficient Building Scheme is identical to an emissions trading scheme except that it recognizes energy efficiency improvements in non-residential buildings, rather than emissions avoided. Simply put, it treats one ton of greenhouse gas emissions that is not emitted because energy is not used, in the same way that a conventional Emissions Trading Scheme treats one ton of CO2 that is not emitted due to a change in energy generation methods.” In other words, it’s far better to reduce demand than to fiddle with what the power plant has to emit to meet the (higher) demand of a building that wasn’t upgraded in terms of energy requirements. So, in this way, the proposal, “provides a competitive return on investments in emissions r eduction initiatives, which would drive significant greenhouse gas abatement through energy efficiency improvements.” Well worth a look for all large property owners in the U.S., as well as the U.S. government.
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