Environmental Resources

Demolition of Heritage Buildings Makes No Sense

Points to Ponder:
  • 30 to 60% of our landfills are made up of rubble from construction and demolition.
  • Buildings in Canada account for 50% of our natural resources.
  • Rehabilitation of older buildings uses 23% less energy than new construction.
  • Reuse of a heritage building is cheaper than building new.
  • Adaptive heritage buildings attract higher prices per square foot.
  • Wood windows (with minor maintenance) will outlive vinyl ones. It is cheaper to repair than to replace windows.
  • Heritage buildings represent an important aesthetic, cultural and economic non renewable resource.

Embodied Energy and Adaptive Reuse of Heritage Buildings

Embodied Energy is the energy consumed by all the processes used in the extraction, processing, manufacture and transportation of the materials used in building a structure.  Each step requires not only brute material, its transformation and human labour, but the input of non-renewable energy to render the material fit for use.  All the materials used in the construction of buildings represent a financial investment and environmental cost.

The embodied energy in one brick building is equivalent to 32000 litres of gasoline!

Embodied Energy is one of the components that must be calculated in doing a life cycle assessment of any structure.  The operating energy used to maintain the building and finally the amount of energy used to demolish and dispose of the debris also add to true cost to the environment of erecting the structure.

Saving one downtown building is equivalent to recycleing 1,344,000 pop cans

For a embodied energy calculator visit:

http://www.thegreenestbuilding.org/

For more information on sustainability and embodied energy visit:

http://www.canadianarchitect.com/.../measures_of_sustainablity_embodied.htm