For Global Climate Strike week, here’s a roundup of articles on the climate crisis and Canadian architecture.
HDR?s Jim Pattison Centre at Okanagan College targets net zero energy. Photo by Ed White Photographics
1. What’s the problem, anyways"

This 2016 article by Douglas Macleod is a comprehensive account of where we are at in the buildings sector?which accounts for up to 35 percent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. “All of our national organizations, all of our provincial regulators, all of our schools of architecture and every single Canadian architect needs to work together and lobby all levels of government to ensure that they understand, and act on, the importance of energy efficient buildings?unsexy though they may be,” writes MacLeod.  
The OAA is leading by example, retrofitting its headquarters to net zero energy standards as a response to the climate crisis. Image via OAA.
2. The 2030 deadline

The IPCC’s report in the fall of 2018 upped the need for urgent climate action in the buildings sector. Here’s my summary along with some suggestions for how we can construct to limit warming to 1.5ºC, which will require halving our global GHG emissions by 2030.
 
3. Embodied Energy: Our Blindspot

While architects have been focusing on operational energy, embodied energy is the industry’s blind spot. In the next thirty years, the sourcing, manufacturing, and transport of materials will consume as much ...