Going for Zero : Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Elefante, Carl.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable buildings--Design and construction.

Sustainable buildings.

Greenhouse gas mitigation.

Climatic changes.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D. C. : Island Press, 2025.

Summary:

Climate change is no longer an abstract threat. Day after day, an already disrupted climate is impacting the lives of millions, and the time available to curtail climate change is alarmingly limited. Going for zero greenhouse gas emissions requires retooling everything about industry, agriculture, transportation, and every city and town that people inhabit. The work of architects, engineers, landscape architects, urban designers and the countless others who shape the built environment has never been more relevant. Decarbonizing how buildings are designed, constructed, and operated is a sea change that is already altering professional principles and practices. In Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future​, seasoned architect and former AIA president Carl Elefante addresses how buildings and cities can and must help resolve the looming climate emergency. Elefante offers a decidedly alternative viewpoint, one informed by his architecture career rescuing buildings from senseless demolition and learning from the practices and wisdom embedded in built heritage. For architects and the countless others who work together creating human habitation, the twenty-first century imperatives demand a profound mode shift, from an expansion mindset to one of reintegration and healing. Elefante argues that curtailing the climate emergency, resolving intransigent social and economic injustice, and launching the urban era onto a truly beneficial and sufficient path presents challenges that must be addressed through built form. The challenge of our built environment and the possible solutions are covered in four sections: climate imperative, justice imperative, urban imperative, and beyond modernism. Elefante explains that revitalizing communities by optimizing existing resources makes social, economic, and environmental sense and directs resources where they are most needed. Going for Zero is an urgent call to action and path forward. Elefante's message is ultimately one of hope--but we must act now.

Contents:

Part 1: Climate Imperative

Chapter 1: To Protect and Defend

Chapter 2: Carbon, Carbon, Everywhere

Chapter 3: Climate Action by Design

Chapter 4: Stewardship Imperative

Part 2: Justice Imperative

Chapter 5: Our Common Future

Chapter 6: Justice by Design

Part 3: Urban Imperative

Chapter 7: The Urban Era

Chapter 8: The Urban Agenda

Part 4: Beyond Modern

Chapter 9: One World, One Future

Chapter 10: Toward Reintegration.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781642833560

1642833568

OCLC:

1501716284