The multi-disciplinary research team, spanning from Harvard, and Boston University to Oregon State University, has developed a novel method for calculating the projected health and climate co-benefits of energy savings through 2050.
Our built environment is a major contributor to the release of greenhouse gasses. Buildings themselves play a central role in climate change, consuming between 40% and 75% of global fossil fuel energy. Hence, new energy-reducing technologies need to be developed and implemented to ensure the prevalence of energy-efficient buildings.
The project is being carried out by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and supported by Login5 Foundation.
Three major forces are colliding and creating unsustainable demands on the planet and our health: population growth, rapid urbanization, and a changing climate. For thousands of years we organized societies around buildings. Groups of buildings became villages, villages became towns and, eventually, cities. A few years ago, for the first time ever, more people were living in cities than outside of them.
The human population recently surpassed 7 billion, and may reach 9 billion halfway through this century, with as many as two-thirds of all people living in cities. Although cities have been a source of economic wealth (providing more than 80% of the global GDP) cities and their respective buildings are major contributors to the release of greenhouse gases, which change our climate and affect our health on an unprecedented scale.
The story, and the concept of this project, are both quite simple. 80% of global energy production comes from fossil fuel combustion, which releases air pollutants that cause immediate and long-term health risks, including cardiovascular issues, asthma, and other respiratory diseases. This global energy system, dominated by fossil fuels, also releases greenhouse gasses that cause climate change—itself labeled as one of the greatest public health threats we face. Buildings play a central role in this problem, yet they also represent one of the greatest opportunities to solve these challenges.
Efforts to reduce the energy demand of buildings are underway, yet the pace is not fast enough. The decisions we make today with regard to our buildings will determine our current and future collective health.
The most tangible result of the project is the development of an online tool, the CoBE Calculator. Its aim is to help building owners and businesses understand the economic, climate and health impacts of building energy consumption on a broader scale.
With the support of the Login5 Foundation, the research team could extend the range and impact of the tool, making CoBE an open-access, city-scale and portfolio-scale tool.
Read more about the CoBE calculator here.
Project Leader: Joseph G. Allen, DSc, MPH, Assistant Professor of Exposure Assessment Science and Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
