A Net Zero Future

As the global climate crisis looms, we are far from achieving the goals outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement. Within just the past ten years, climate events have been estimated to cost the world nearly $2 trillion in damage and directly affect nearly four billion people. The wide use of Net Zero Energy holds enormous potential to move the built environment toward a more sustainable future. The building sector accounts for about 76% of electricity use and 40% of all U.S. primary energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Net Zero construction and retrofitting practices can reduce the average energy consumption of a building by 60%. This necessary and inevitable shift toward clean energy will disrupt construction processes, site locations, transit, and countless other aspects of the built environment.