Spotlight On England's Biggest C02 Offenders

In the United Kingdom, a test done to determine the level of C02 emissions from many of the prominent buildings in the country yielding astounding results with many of the so called green buildings receiving failing grades. This test, which came about as a direct result from the new national law to curb carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency in the country, sought to measure emissions from buildings to determine which needed to be redesigned and upgraded to be more efficient.

Approximately 18,000 buildings, including town halls, schools, museums and banks have now been tested by the National Department for the Environment to discover their level of energy efficiency and assign a grade, where an "A" is the highest obtainable and a "G" is a failing grade. From the bottom up, both the Palace of Westminster and the Bank of England scored a G consuming enough energy to pump out 21,356 tonnes of C02 a year.

Many newer buildings, initially marketed as green also fared badly calling into question many of the sustainable claims made by architects and developers. For example, London's city hall scored an abysmal E despite Foster & Partners initially describing it as "a virtually non-polluting public building." The building for the Treasury Headquarters in Whitehall and Libeskind's Imperial War Museum shared a similar grade even though the former had received a complete refurbishment six years ago and both projects were supposed to set "new environmental standards in their respective counties."

Many of the other evaluated buildings in the country received an average grade of a D with only 22 buildings scoring an A (less than 1%) also showing that almost a fifth of all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.K are caused by non-residential buildings. Matt Bell, director of public affairs at the commission for Architecture and the Built Environment stated, "We review about 350 significant new build projects a year at design phase and hear a lot of 'greenwash.' The knowledge that from now on, this performance will be objectively measured should put an end to all those baseless claims."

All these results have made the government pledge to make all new public buildings zero emission by the year 2018 but it looks like they'll have to start in their own backyard as the Department of Environment's main office received an E. So now we have to wonder if "Green" has just become a label slapped on to projects to make them more salable and again ask the question, "who really designs green?"

Image (Imperial War Museum, Manchester) obtained from www.guardian.co.uk