At current rates, most offices and homes will not be retrofitted for decades or even centuries to acceptable levels of energy efficiency. One approach is mandatory building performance standards—requiring existing buildings to meet a performance benchmark (energy or carbon intensity, performance rating, etc.), with owners having multiple years to bring buildings into compliance.

Ask people how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and most will say “improve energy efficiency.” That may be a step in the right direction, but it’s time to adopt a better measure – a building’s total carbon emissions.

For decades, buildings have been influenced by transportation trends. But the reverse is also true: transportation can be influenced through building location and design. It’s time for green building professionals to make both buildings and their associated transportation carbon-neutral.

The number of zero energy commercial buildings continues to climb according to The New Buildings Institute. They collect and analyze information on verified zero energy buildings each year. Now, you can access information on these projects through an online database.

Building codes are the nerdy superheroes that will help us stop the worst impacts of climate change. Local and state governments across the U.S. are beginning to recognize that every new building will use energy for decades and must be as efficient as possible.

The time is now for zero energy commercial buildings. To that end, Architecture 2030 has developed a new international building code for commercial buildings allows jurisdictions in North America and beyond to establish zero energy as the new standard.