Carbon

Modern Exterior by Seattle Architects & Designers Fivedot Design Build

There is a lot of talk at the moment about Carbon. What does it all mean? It's impact is broad and considerable with it's repercussions, yet some people would not even be aware of it. I had a conversation today with a person involved in a non-for profit organisation that is involved in providing carbon offsets. Interesting conversation on many levels. From the entire conversation the most poignant moment was when I was told how many trees it takes to offset 1 tonne of carbon.

6 TREES OVER AN AVERAGE LIFESPAN OF 100 YEARS TO OFFSET 1 TONNE.

This really drives home the significance of the impact we have on our environment- to know it takes that many trees over their life cycle to counteract the effects of only 1 tonne of carbon. Lets put that in perspective. For each and every person in the world the average figure is approximately 4.5 tonne per person/ per year. Multiple that by the number of people in the world today, approximately 7,165,000,000 and the figure is astronomical. How many trees would we need to plant every year to keep up?

Contemporary Exterior by Belfast Architects & Designers GO LOGIC

Building a home carries with it a significant impact in relation to it's contribution to the carbon footprint globally. Firstly by the carbon footprint it makes in the process of construction (including the embodied energy in materials used) and secondly the carbon footprint it makes during it's operational cycle- this accumulates into a total life cycle footprint.

There are measures we can take to reduce this impact, and in some instances we can even calculate and then nullify our output to be carbon neutral. There are many homes out there purporting to be "green" and to have credentials of sustainability. Some include token gestures, where others calculate and measure. In my opinion its great that people have taken the time to consider their impact and have applied the initiative to be "green" in any aspect where feasible or possible. It can be done on a personal level and then expanded to a community and beyond. Taking action is being responsible, and to whatever extent the action takes place it will be a path in the right direction.

RMIT - Carbon Neutral Communities from dan murphy on Vimeo.