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Jiran Carbon Yan
Around the world, it is urgent to quickly reduce carbon emissions to avoid the worst impact of climate change. About 85% of carbon emissions in developed cities come from electricity and natural gas in residential and commercial buildings, so there is obviously a need and a lot of opportunities to achieve new developments with zero net carbon emissions.
uses technologies and methods that are scientific and reasonable and widely available today, and the built environment can quickly and cost-effectively reduce emissions and energy consumption. Net-zero carbon buildings have lower operating costs, healthier and more resilient compared to typical buildings, while also bringing considerable environmental, social and economic benefits to the community.
How to determine whether buildings have achieved the development of zero-carbon ?
Zero Carbon Development Building is a new building without net carbon (or greenhouse gas) emissions. The following are the best practice standards for determining net zero carbon emission construction projects:
- optimized passive design can provide energy-saving building envelopes.
- The highest energy efficiency standard for all electrical appliances, systems and lighting.
- does not consume fossil fuels on site, such as natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas .
- Maximize the use of on-site renewable energy to generate electricity.
- Remaining electricity demand comes from local or off-site renewable energy generation.
- selects materials that minimize carbon emissions and offsets these emissions through a proven carbon offset program.
How to achieve net zero carbon in new development projects?
1. Source of carbon emissions in construction
Emissions generated by construction operations are emissions generated by daily operation of buildings. Including:
- Lighting
- Heating and cooling
- Residential personnel use
- Refrigerant
- Repair electromechanical related equipment
When the carbon emissions related to the annual operating energy of a building are zero or negative, net zero carbon for operating energy is achieved. net zero carbon buildings are highly energy-efficient and powered by on-site or off-site renewable energy, and any remaining carbon emissions can be offset.
2. Net Zero Building: From Definition to Strategy
In the context of the built environment, the concepts of "net zero carbon" and "net zero energy" can be defined in different ways. However, by following these key principles, net zero carbon can be achieved in building operations:
- Optimize the energy efficiency of development projects through architectural and landscape design strategies such as passive design and insulation.
- reduces energy demand in building systems such as efficient heating, cooling and hot water, and passes full electrification instead of using gas.
- generates residual energy demand from both on-site and off-site renewable energy.
- compensation is applied to any remaining carbon equilibrium, including embedded carbon in the building structure, using a recognized compensation framework.
Run carbon emissions? Implicit carbon emissions?
1. Operation carbon emissions
Operation carbon emissions are emissions related to building operations, such as for heating, cooling and all other energy uses emissions, as well as emissions generated by operating waste.
2. Implicit carbon emissions
Implicit carbon emissions are emissions related to the materials and construction processes throughout the entire life cycle of building , including emissions related to the production and transportation of construction products.How to apply for zero carbon certification in
?
development projects can apply for net zero energy consumption or low-carbon building certification through third-party certification provided by some organizations:
ILFI Zero carbon certification is the world's first zero-carbon third-party certification standard. The program recognizes the growing interest and focus on a broad-based tool to highlight the design and operation of energy-efficient buildings to fully consider their carbon emission impacts.
requires that the operational energy associated with the project be 100% offset by new on-site or off-site renewable energy. The overall implicit carbon emission impact is related to the structure and materials of the project and must be disclosed and offset. specific requirements are as follows
1. General project
project must prove the actual net zero carbon operation based on a 12-month execution period. During this period, the project must always operate according to its prescribed purpose. must disclose the total implied carbon emissions of the final building materials and processes associated with the project and be accounted for by purchasing equivalent carbon compensation. At the same time, compared with the same benchmark, the new project must demonstrate a reduction in implicit carbon in primary materials.
2. Energy efficiency
During the twelve-month execution period, the project must be executed in accordance with the established efficiency goals. If the management authorities in the project area have set a zero-carbon efficiency target locally, this goal must be achieved. If there is no local target, the project should achieve one of the goals determined in the following table:
3. Fuel type
New project cannot be burned, but any fuel type used by existing projects is acceptable, including natural gas. All forms of energy used by a building during the performance period shall be converted into kilowatt-hour equivalents to determine the efficiency performance objectives and the required offsets.
4. Renewable energy
3 offset renewable energy can be carried out on site or off-site. Renewable energy should comply with the following standards:
- They should provide additional renewable energy to the power grid; that is, not existing renewable energy.
- renewable energy production that can be identified and allocated to the project should have a lasting ownership interest.
- Unless exceptions I06-E10 4/2015 – Renewable energy credits must be retained.
- acceptable forms of ownership of off-site renewable energy include (as long as they meet their first 3 items 1), 2) and 3)): full ownership; power purchase agreement; community solar; renewable energy investment fund ; other forms approved by ILFI consistent with the certification intent. REC is not an acceptable form of ownership.
- Renewable energy directly owned by . Any directly owned renewable energy (on-site or off-site) must be run during execution and metered to display the output.
- Renewable energy that is not directly owned. For non-directly owned renewable energy, its output must be guaranteed by the supplier in a contract manner. The renewable energy power generation does not need to match the fulfillment period, but the renewable energy power generation at the renewable energy site should be equal to the energy use for 15 years during the project fulfillment period. As long as the quantity is reached, the actual duration of the quantity may vary; that is, a project can purchase a 15-year contract with annual energy demand equal to the energy demand of the project, or a renewable energy contract for a year, 15 times its annual energy use, or some other equivalent combination.
5. Calculate the implicit carbon
project team should use the approved life cycle assessment (LCA) tool to calculate the total implicit carbon emissions of the project. calculations should list the estimated carbon impacts of each final building material and process related to the project foundation, structure, enclosure and interior. When calculating implicit carbon, all projects should use a standard 50-year life span to ensure consistency and ensure that buildings with longer lifespans do not have carbon impacts due to material replacement over time. The institute identified the following carbon calculators for the project team:
- Athena impact estimator
- Union Environment Construction Activities Carbon Calculator
- Electronic Tools
- One-click LCA
- Other options: If the project team approves the equivalent of at least one listed calculator through dialogue before purchasing carbon compensation, the project team can use the carbon calculator not listed above.
6. Reducing implicit carbon
Compared with the same benchmark, the new project must prove that the implicit carbon of the main materials used within the project scope has been reduced. The team should determine specific actions taken to reduce implicit carbon during design and construction, such as using carbon as a standard for selection of materials and components, purchasing local products or adopting low-carbon assembly practices during construction. Through the process defined above, the project team must demonstrate the following:
- The implicit carbon emission impact of the main materials of the foundation, structure and shell is reduced by at least 10% compared to the benchmark scenario with the same material type, function and energy performance. The total implicit carbon emissions of the
- project shall not exceed 500 kg-CO₂e/m².
7. Purchase carbon compensation
must ensure that one-time carbon compensation is equal to the total implicit carbon emissions related to the scope of the project. Acceptable forms of carbon offset include certified emission reduction (CER) and certified emission reduction (VER) carbon credits; no renewable energy certificate (REC) is accepted.
Carbon compensation must be certified by Green-e Climate (www.green-e.org) or equivalent program. Other certification programs must be submitted for dialogue approval. Carbon compensation may also be generated anywhere in the world; compensation is not necessarily local, but local or community solutions are encouraged to provide additional socio-economic benefits. How to carry out the authentication process in
?
1. Register
Register your project indicates that you are interested in building and certifying your project as zero carbon. Projects are encouraged to register as early as possible during the development and occupation process. When you register for your building, you will receive a variety of support resources, as well as the opportunity to connect with industry leaders from around the world.
2. Document
After registration, the project team can start organizing and submitting documents on the ILFI online certification platform. After construction is completed, documents will be collected for preliminary ready review. Once the performance data for twelve consecutive months has been collected to demonstrate that the project achieved net zero carbon, the submission of the final audit can begin.
3. After the upload file is
, the certifier will review it to ensure it is complete, and then hand it over to an independent third-party auditor for review.
4. Certification
If the auditor determines that the project is executed with zero carbon and meets ILFI requirements, it will be certified.
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