Adaptive re-use and Sustainability, Net zero future –

As we learn more about the scope of climate change, many cities are now looking at the legacy buildings that line their streets and seeing opportunities to evolve them through adaptive reuse to fit the needs of today’s businesses and residents. A longstanding but increasingly popular practice, adaptive reuse isn’t historic preservation, which seeks to restore a space to its former glory. Instead, adaptive reuse focuses on taking a building that is past its prime and renovating it for new purposes in line with contemporary technological and social needs. If we want to create more sustainable cities, adaptive reuse is one of the soundest strategies we can implement. Simply put, a significant portion of a building’s carbon emissions comes from its materials, specifically their fabrication, delivery, assembly, and end-of-life protocols. That embodied carbon, as it’s called, is projected to make up 49% of the total carbon emissions of global new construction between now and 2050, according to Architecture 2030, a nonprofit focused on climate change and the built environment.