Climate Change Series Moving Towards Greener Skylines

Retrofitting old urban buildings is crucial to reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, as it enhances sustainability through improved insulation, efficient lighting, renewable energy integration, and advanced HVAC systems

- Krishna Gupta

In the past few articles, we have discussed the importance of heating and cooling in urban offices and residences, increased use of LED lights in urban areas, better planning of urban spaces and Net-Zero Buildings. However, the urban environment all over the world has been in existence for decades, with many cities being over 100 years old. In these cities, the urban spaces, including residences and buildings, have been around for a long time and green improvements can be undertaken only if we retrofit these buildings.

Retrofitting Buildings: A Necessary Intervention

Since buildings are major energy users, they are also heavy emitters of greenhouse gases. Paul Hawken in his book Drawdown, says that buildings account for 32 per cent of energy use and 19 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions around the world. This energy is used for heating, cooling and lighting and is drawn from the grid. When the buildings were first constructed, the objective was to provide comfortable office spaces and dwelling units, with no concern for the energy intensity of these buildings or even energy efficiency. There was no concept of planning the building to allow the use of natural light or to have an 'envelope' that would optimise the heating and the cooling. If the carbon footprint of urban spaces has to be reduced and ultimately phased out, retrofitting of buildings will be an important strategy.