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According
to a 2023 report published by the Rocky Mountain Institute titled
“Transforming Existing Buildings from Climate Liabilities to Climate
Assets,” the United States has more than 97 billion square feet of
commercial buildings and 244 billion square feet of residential
buildings, and 80 percent of them will still be in service by 2050. In
fact, many of them will still be here in 100 years. The same report
states that the existing global building stock is responsible for 28
percent of the world’s carbon emissions, highlighting the importance of
making significant upgrades to the structures that are already here.
Any
discussion about global climate change requires an analysis of total
carbon emissions. For the construction industry, there are two types of
carbon that need to be considered: operational carbon and embodied
carbon.