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🏡 Carbon Positive vs. Carbon Negative
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🏡 Carbon Positive vs. Carbon Negative

There's a pretty substantial difference (obviously), but some publishers don't seem to understand...

Stryker
Apr 25
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🏡 Carbon Positive vs. Carbon Negative
builttozero.substack.com

Happy belated Earth day…

In retrospect, we should have probably published a special edition, butttt here we are.

Today’s newsletter will take ~ 4 minutes


Trends

Study finds eco-friendly homes sell faster

  • A Zillow survey previously found that 2/3 of young adults believe climate change will affect their homes & communities within their lifetime.

  • With a stronger conciseness of their environmental impact, this generation’s buying habits are in stark contrasts to those before them, making purchase decisions that align with personal values and principals.

Adaptive reuse taking off in the UK

  • Developers in the UK are trying to tackle the climate crisis by reducing the amount of embodied carbon in “new” developments by redeveloping old buildings. When in construction, 95%-98% of a development’s emissions come from new materials.


Deals & Developments

Populus Hotel breaks ground in Denver

  • The nation’s first carbon negative hotel officially broke ground (read on to see why headlines are inaccurate). With expected completion in 2023, the Studio Gang designed hotel looks to replicate the scalloped bark of aspen trees, populus tremuloides.

Rendering of Populus Hotel, courtesy of Studio Gang.

Technology

Coming soon: ADUs that provide power to your house

  • Cosmic’s prefab ADUs come outfitted complete with solar panels, heats pumps, and highly efficient appliances.

  • In addition, the company looks to offer power packs to serve as energy and heat storage that can remain separate from the primary home and ADU.

Cosmic’s studio ADU

Legislation

Baltimore Mayor signs net-zero 2045 bill

  • Though the deadline is five years later than that of the accord, the bill calls for a complete elimination of the emitting of greenhouse gasses by 2050, meaning no offsets. This stipulation takes the bill further than that of Maryland’s state-wide net zero bill with its inability to use carbon offsets to achieve net zero.

Executive Order to Strengthen Forests and Boost Wildfire Resilience

  • President Biden on Earth Day signed in an executive order to support local economies, protect against wildfires, and reduce climate pollution, allocating more money to safeguard old-growth forests and outlining forestry and planting requirements for developers.


Quick Takes

How costs for abiding by environmental legislation pays for itself

Sustainable house staging key to selling homes


Fact for Thought

On one hand we’re outraged at the incompetence, on the other we’re chuckling to ourselves. Several articles were published on Earth Day regarding a new development in Denver, CO that they purport to be “the first carbon positive hotel in the US.”

I hope that if you subscribe to this Built to Zero, you understand the unimpressiveness of this statement. Unfortunately, most all publishers have been ignorant to this fact and have yet to adjust their arcticles. This includes Forbes, ArchDaily, 9news, and more.

The kicker is that the building, jointly developed by internationally recognized Studio Gang and local firm Urban Villages will will most certainly not be carbon negative. With the lead developer Grant McCargo speaking how the carbon footprint will be minimized and offset with the planting of trees, it is non-sequitur for the building to be carbon positive.

We do believe the intention is to in fact achieve carbon negative. Unfortunately, at the ground breaking ceremony, the co-founder of Urban Villages quoted saying the building would be “the first carbon positive hotel in the US.” Oh well…


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Tracy Lewis
Apr 25

Looks like everyone needs a bit of education on carbon neutrality! ;-)

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