Building Climate Resilience with Better Buildings
Gazing at the downtown skyline of Portland? Rushing through PDX to catch a flight? Lost in the Silicon Forest? You probably aren’t thinking about how to reduce climate emissions. But Oregon’s large office, high-tech and public buildings are one of Oregon’s best opportunities to meet our climate goals by addressing our second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s because the overall “carbon footprint” of those buildings can be huge. Making the steel and concrete to build them is energy intensive. Construction equipment, the choice of materials that go inside, and the way the building is heated and cooled all contribute to climate pollution.
The larger the building, the larger the impact – but also the larger the opportunity to cut energy waste, use lower-carbon materials and appliances, and integrate renewable energy and storage.
A top priority of OEC and allies in 2023 — the Oregon Legislature’s approval of a Building Resilience Package – includes new “performance standards” for large commercial or public buildings, creating important spaces for many private businesses to innovate. The Portland office of Skanska, an international company based in Sweden, is one of them.
As part of the massive $2 billion update at PDX, Skanska and forward-looking partners (including ZGF Architects and PAE Engineering) are incorporating “mass timber” – laminated, high-strength wood panels that have far fewer carbon emissions than concrete or steel.
Skanska, along with other OEC supporters such as Fortis Construction are innovating with low carbon concrete. By using different binders in cement, it can cut carbon pollution by up to 70%.
As Oregon transitions to 100% clean energy by 2040, any building, large or small, can also cut its carbon footprint by switching from fossil fuels like natural gas to clean electricity.
In Oregon, transportation is still the largest source of climate pollution. Skanska is also greening its fleet with four fully electric Ford F-150 Lightnings, and striving to make renewable diesel their default fuel for equipment in many locations.
Of course, you won’t see most of these changes. But you can see the growing number of wind farms and solar installations that are making this clean transition possible.
Still, laws like the Climate Resilience Package are only as good as the more detailed regulations that state agencies adopt to implement them. Those regulations come out best when people get involved. Rulemaking procedures by the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) recently began. Later this year, ODOE will be taking public comment on draft rules for the Building Resilience Package, and we need your help to make sure they stay strong.
Join OEC’s grassroots email list so you’ll know when and how to make your voice heard! We’ll send you ways to show up, and talking points on rulemaking to help raise your voice for Oregon’s environment.