North American buildings release more than 2,200 megatons of CO2 into the atmosphere - 35 percent of the continent’s total - according to a new report issued by the trinational Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The report says rapid market uptake of energy-saving technologies could result in over 1,700 fewer megatons of CO2 emissions by 2030 - a cut nearly equal to the CO2 emitted by the entire US transportation sector in 2000.

Promoting the green design, construction, renovation and operation of advanced energy-saving buildings could cut North American greenhouse gas emissions more deeply and cheaply than any other available measure, the report advises.

It is common now for more advanced green buildings to routinely reduce energy usage by 30, 40, or even 50 percent over conventional buildings, with the most efficient buildings now performing more than 70 percent better than conventional properties, according to the report.

Green building today accounts for a only small fraction of new home and commercial building construction — just 2% of the new non-residential building market, less than 0.5% of the residential market in the United States and Canada, and even less than that in Mexico.

“Improving our built environment is probably the single greatest opportunity to protect and enhance the natural environment. This report is a blueprint for dramatic environmental progress throughout North America—mostly using the tools and technology we have on hand today,” says CEC Executive Director Adrián Vázquez. “Green building represents some of the ripest ‘low-hanging fruit’ for achieving significant reductions in climate change emissions.”

Even with rapid growth projected in the green building market across all three countries, the report says public and private sectors must embrace substantial changes to the planning, development and financing of commercial and residential buildings to overcome what it says are significant barriers to the widespread adoption of high-performance buildings throughout North America.

Report authors describe a number of disincentives to green building to be overcome. For example, how to encourage developers to incur the marginal cost of green building features when the long-term energy-saving benefits will be passed on to the new owners or tenants.

They recommend ways to accelerate the market uptake of green building and make it the standard practice for all new construction and renovation of existing buildings in North America. Among its recommendations, the report calls upon North American government, industry and nongovernmental leaders to:

Create national, multi-stakeholder task forces charged with achieving a vision for green building in North America;

Support the creation of a North American set of principles and planning tools for green building;

Set clear targets to achieve the most rapid possible adoption of green building in North America, including aggressive targets for carbon-neutral or net zero-energy buildings, together with performance monitoring to track progress towards these targets;

Enhance ongoing or new support for green building, including efforts to promote private sector investment and proper valuation methods; and

Increase knowledge of green building through research and development, capacity building, and the use of labels and disclosures on green building performance.

The recommendations complement ongoing efforts by federal, state/provincial and local governments as well as industry and trade associations and nongovernmental organizations.

The CEC study notes several government and industry initiatives that promote aggressive energy performance improvements in the building sector. One study completed for the report signals the potential of green building to yield tremendous energy improvements and greenhouse gas emissions reductions in the building sector by 2030, and suggests a path toward zero net-energy and carbon-neutral buildings.

According to the report:

In Canada, buildings are responsible for:

33 percent of total energy use;

12 percent of non-industrial water consumption;

50 percent of natural resource consumption;

35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions;

10 percent of airborne particulate production; and

25 percent of landfill waste generation.

In Mexico, buildings are responsible for:

17 percent of total energy use;

5 percent of potable water consumption;

25 percent of total electricity consumption;

20 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions; and

20 percent of the waste generated.

In the United States, buildings account for: