State of transition

We are spending our time in leaky containers that we keep renovating for everything else but energy in mind.

This is the conclusion one draws after reading the building section of the newly published Breakthrough Energy report called “State of transition “.

Some interesting tidbits from the report:

• Cement is the second most used resource after water.

• In Europe 85% of the buildings will still exist in 2050.

• Main problem is in deployment, in retrofitting the existing buildings

• Most were built before energy efficiency standards existed.

• In Europe, 10% of the buildings get renovated each year.

• Only 1% of those renovations have a positive impact on building’s energy use.

• As much as 40% of cooling or heating in a building leaks out

• by 2050 there will be 5 billion AC units in the world, twice the amount that there are now

• Heat pumps are key but not totally problem free

• 1-pane windows need to go

• Sealing your building properly is non-sexy but important