Retrofitting for Efficiency

A New Generation of Home Design (Inhabitat)

Columbia University sociologist Saskia Sessen says that working with existing cities and using elements from eco-cities which failed as livable cities but have helped in innovation, is the first step in retrofitting, while training city commissioners and superintendents is equally important. Primary ideas of innovation to be taken from such eco-cities include focusing on “saving energy” and “water and waste.” Though urbanites more often have a lower per capita carbon footprint than suburbanites, cities still emit much more carbon dioxide (emitting nearly ¾ of the world’s carbon emissions) and consuming more energy as well (Biello 68).

The first step to saving energy is to equip our buildings with energy-efficient qualities such as solar-thermal water heaters to heat buildings and white roofs to reflect sunlight and cool buildings. The City Hall in Chicago has made such improvements, having turned its roof into a garden, which helps improve cooling-efficiency, capturing rainwater, and reduce the “heat island” effect that causes cities to be warmer than their surrounding areas. While neighboring buildings with black-tar roofs have 50 degree temperatures in the summer, green and white roofs have 10-15 degrees less. Planning groups responsible for combatting climate change like C40 have already begun cooperating with the World Bank for funding to retrofit cities in this way. Another important focus to improve energy efficiency transportation besides creating mass transit is retrofitting car systems. On the whole, U.S. vehicle tailpipes emit 1.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (plus toxic fumes) a year (Biello 68). Countries like Japan, working on producing no tailpipe emissions at all, have done much research to implement electric car systems instead. If the United States wanted to switch to electric cars, it would have to install battery switch stations which might require as much time to retrofit the city as installing mass transit systems. Either way would require infrastructure: shorter, separate road lanes, and compact building. Simpler and more viable changes could include implementing bus systems that run on compressed natural gas (higher efficiency and cleaner). Cities like Denver which has done this, have saved 24 million gallons of gasoline in three years (Biello 68). Efforts to create a more varied energy supply are working, as natural gas is projected to become much more popular in the United States in the coming decades. At the same time, efforts should be made to use renewable resources.

Another necessity in retrofitting concerns water supplies, which are projected to decrease over the next century. As more cities in the United States deplete and/or contaminate their groundwater supplies (like Miami) and cities in the Southwest like Phoenix face water shortages due to the lessening flow of the Colorado River, programs and incentives to improve water-efficiency are increasing. For example, in 1983, Austin, Texas launched a program to limit water consumption by installing water-conserving toilets and rainwater-harvesting systems. Another necessary process is to reduce leakage by checking pipes and repairing them. Making water consumption regulation stricter (with showers and hoses shutting off automatically and electronic smart grip monitoring resource consumption), as they are in the United Arab Emirates city of Masdar, might lessen resource use. However, most Americans citizens are deeply against the Big Brother approach.  This too, requires a change in American mentality.