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Reinventing Green Building:An African Challenge

Jerry YudelsonPE, MS, MBALEED Fellow

AGBS KeynoteMarch 23, 2017

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Green Building –Pathway to a Better Future

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• Defined a “green” building via rating systems• Revitalized architectural education & practice• Changed building engineering practice, esp. to reduce

energy use:– E.g., 200 kWh/sq.m./year was the norm for offices– <100 kwh/sq.m./year commonly achieved – Net zero energy now achievable in many projects

• Improved construction quality• Educated 100,000’s of building professionals,

businesses & government agencies

“Green Building Movement”

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But Something Happened Along the Way

We Started with Simple Systems…

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…& Wound Up With Very Complex Ones

Vs.

Consider: 10,500 LEED interpretations!

“A Camel is a Horse Designed by a Committee”

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LEED Growth Has Plateaued

US Nonresidential LEED Projects

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Impact Has Been Limited

US Nonresidential Market Uptake

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Existing Buildings Lag Even More

US Nonresidential Market Uptake

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• Existing certification systems won’t get us anywhere near needed carbon reductions

• Better building codes offer some benefits in “raising the floor” for all, but change overall carbon footprint only very slowly

• Green building rating systems have failed to deliver enough business benefits at current costs to gain widespread adoption

Bottom Line…

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…Is There a “Better Way”?

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Simplification: A “Better Way”

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Ratings: Focus on Key Results

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Leadership Means New Approaches

• Radically cut carbon emissions – primary goal– 2030 goals: zero net energy for ALL new bldgs.

• Redesign green ratings as management tools for continuous improvement & sustainability reporting

• Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) for the green building movement!– Increase uptake 20x by 2030, to 25% of all

buildings

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How? Make Technology Our Friend

• Technology megatrends push every tool and system to be smaller, faster, lighter, cheaper, denser, with more user engagement, etc.

• Green building can piggyback on these megatrends

• What we need are tech-enabled “smart” green buildings, with equally “smart” rating and assessment systems

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Convergence

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Building Performance Software

Source: www.Memoori.com, “The Transformation of the Building Performance Software Business,” March 2017

358

Esta

blish

ed

Com

pani

es!

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Why Not Use Next Gen Tech Tools?

• Use Big Data analytics to streamline evaluations• Leverage algorithms to assess sustainability– Self-driving cars

• Cloud computing offers the chance to start anew• It’s important to have a unified, low-cost

approach that makes sense to building owners and developers, as well as government

• Technology is your friend, moving fast is the method, and ingenuity is the means

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Key Components of “Smart” Buildings

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Result: Living on “The Edge”

The Edge, Amsterdam, 98%+ BREEAM rating, 27,000 sensors

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The Challenge for Africa• You can’t afford to take 5 - 10 – 15 more years to

get where developed economies are today:– It takes a long time to build a green building

user/designer/consultant base, one project at a time– It’s no longer even really necessary; leverage what’s

already been done elsewhere• Tech systems can help you directly to create green

buildings, via best practices software• Aim for rapid prototyping a new approach• The solution: PROJECT LEAPFROG!

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Is It Possible to Leapfrog? Yes!• There are clear African precedents/opportunities:– Mobile phones (instead of copper land lines)– Mobile payments (instead of banking infrastructure)– Distributed power with PV and wind (instead of massive

dams & coal-fired central plants)• Can you use a technology leapfrog to put green

building measures into every new building?– Crowdsourcing can create new rating systems in a few

weeks & then find projects via social media– Algorithms can design building retrofits with “best

practices” menus

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Why Is This Necessary?• The “old way” won’t scale in any short time frame• Green finance tools need scale to work• Create scale in 5 years like these two companies:– Airbnb: the world’s largest & most valuable hotel

company with zero capital investment in hotels– Uber: the world’s largest & most valuable car & driver

company with zero capital investment in cars• The lesson: If you’re short of money, you have to

be long on ingenuity!

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Leapfrogging: Focus on BHAGs• Why use old INCREMENTAL “improvement”

pathways that don’t get BHAG results?• Create your own African pathway with a steady

focus on absolute performance measures:– Energy use: net zero for new projects; 50% reduction

or “near net zero” for renovations & retrofits– Water use: meet global best results (Germany)– Waste generation: zero net waste to positive reuse

• Focus obsessively on lowering the costs of green building & creating an awesome user experience!

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If You Want to Win, You Have to Go to Where the Ball is Headed!

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So I ask:Isn’t It Time For

a Discussion aboutREINVENTING GREEN

BUILDINGFor African Use?