2030 Challenge for Planning
Targets that address building energy consumption, transportation emissions, and water consumption for new buildings and major renovations.
New Buildings
All new buildings, developments, and major renovations shall be carbon-neutral, use half as much water and emit half as much transportation emissions by 2030:
The built environment is the major source of global demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases (GHG). Planning decisions not only affect building energy consumptions and GHG emissions, but transportation energy consumption and water use as well, both of which have large environmental implications.
Architecture 2030 has issued the 2030 Challenge for Planning asking the global architecture and planning community to adopt the following targets:
- All new and renovated developments / neighborhoods / towns / cities / regions immediately adopt and implement a 70% reduction standard below the regional average/median for fossil-fuel operating energy consumption for new and renovated buildings and infrastructure. The fossil-fuel reduction standard shall be increased to:
- 80% in 2020
- 90% in 2025
- Carbon-neutral in 2030 (using no fossil fuel GHG emitting energy to operate or construct)
- These targets may be accomplished by implementing innovative sustainable design strategies, generating on-site renewable power and/or purchasing renewable energy (20% maximum).
- All new buildings and major renovations within developments / neighborhoods / towns / cities / regions also immediately adopt and implement a 50% reduction standard below the regional average/median for:
- CO2 emissions from transportation
- Water consumption
Major Renovations
All existing buildings shall cut fossil fuel energy and water consumption, and transportation emissions, by 50% by 2030:
- By 2020, all existing buildings within developments / neighborhoods / towns / cities / regions adopt and implement a 20% reduction standard below the regional average/median for:
- fossil-fuel operating energy consumption
- CO2 emissions from transportation
- water consumption
- The reduction standard shall be increased to:
- 35% in 2025
- 50% in 2030
The Impact of the 2030 Challenge for Planning
The 2030 Challenge for Planning was adopted as the goal set for the 2030 Districts Network, which Architecture 2030 helped form. This independent organization, with a membership of 18 high performance urban building districts across North America, is led by local building industry leaders in the private sector that unite around a shared vision for sustainability and economic growth – aligning with local community groups and government to achieve significant energy, water, and emissions reductions within our commercial cores.
