CA26 - Top 5 simple solutions
The biggest takeaways from my top 5 sketches on carbon + architecture
THE TOPIC - CARBON SIMPLICITY
Let’s talk about the power of simplicity. In today’s fast past, social media-fueled world everything moves fast and passes by in a moment. If you blink you may have scrolled by 5 interesting articles and 2 news stories. In fact, for those of you that actually opened this newsletter congratulations, you fought through the endless stream of emails.
All this to say that in order to communicate the impacts and basic truths of carbon in architecture we need to start with simplicity. There is a very important place for detailed research and thorough explanation, but that’s not where I find my strength.
So today I want to look back at 5 of my most impactful sketches on Carbon + Architecture and talk about what they mean and how simple ideas change the way people think.
I’d love it if you dropped a comment on your favorite one!
THE LAYERED CAKE
Solar panels are not a sustainability strategy
A real strategy has many parts, one of which may include solar panels
Solar panels are just the cherry-on-top
CARBON ICEBERG
Most people focus on reducing carbon above grade
In buildings with underground parking, they should focus below
Let’s talk more about the hidden parts of carbon
EMBODIED CARBON
We need to make an impact on climate change today
Day 1 of a new building has a higher embodied carbon impact than operational
Think about the time value of carbon
INSULATION PARADOX
Insulating more isn’t always better for the environment always
We need to look at whole-life carbon to decide how much to insulate
The material type and energy type have huge impacts
NEW HOME SIZE
Are carbon emissions just a result of home size?
The average new home size in the USA & Australia is double the UK & Japan
The CO2 emissions per person is almost triple
1 PERSON TO FOLLOW
Tyler is one of the best at communicating simple ideas. He doesn’t post about carbon, but his communication around architecture is like none other. He is a serial learner obsessed with helping architects optimize all things business development, sales, marketing, and operations. He works at Monograph and writes a killer newsletter to thousands of architects about attracting high-quality clients. Follow Tyler on LinkedIn