Archive (Page 2) • Carbon Upfront! • Buttondown

When I hear the word "abatement," I reach for my delete key

September 6, 2023

We are hearing a lot about unabated fossil fuels, and industry plans to abate carbon emissions with storage or capture. It's all a sham

Stop the Presses for Labor Day (or Labour Day, which is how you should spell it)

September 4, 2023

The American Labor Day holiday is actually an import from Canada, but they forgot the U.

Ephemerality: Another radical design concept for the climate revolution

September 1, 2023

Revisiting Bucky Fuller's term for doing “more and more with less and less until eventually, you can do everything with nothing.”

The latest design trend: "House hushing"

August 28, 2023

It is a silly term that gets it backward, and has nothing to do with acoustics.

I keep saying people want walkable communities, but apparently I am wrong

August 25, 2023

A Pew survey finds that only young lefties want to walk to restaurants and schools.

OK, what should a green building look like?

August 23, 2023

It's going to be not too tall, not too big, not too glassy, boxy but beautiful, possibly Passivhaus, and it will have trees around it, not on it. Oh, and it is probably a bit boring.

Dear Zero: Please accept my apology and my explanation of why I hate AI images of buildings covered in trees

August 21, 2023

We have a carbon problem with construction, but putting trees on tall buildings solves nothing and could make it worse, and these images are everywhere now.

New study looks at the impact of frequent flyer points

August 18, 2023

And it's not pretty. Possible, a British charity thinks they should be banned.

Pedestrian bridges are mostly designed for cars, and we will be seeing more of them.

August 16, 2023

Get ready for a lot of fights about pedestrian rights.

We have to stop "carbon lock-in" now, and that means stopping Doug Ford from paving the Greenbelt

August 14, 2023

We are stuck with him for four more years, but we are stuck with his decisions for probably 40 years.

Has recycling failed? No, it has been successful beyond the convenience-industrial complex's wildest dreams

August 11, 2023

The purpose of recycling was to make the world safe for single-use packaging. It worked.

Kitchen bloat is everywhere, from tiny homes to monster homes

It's time to return to the closed, separate kitchen, and to lose the giant gas stoves.

A reader asks: What motivates me?

I struggle to answer.

Underground parking garages are not "sustainable"

The word "sustainable" has been debased beyond recognition, but the University of British Columbia takes it to new depths.

It's time for limits on truck and SUV size and weight

They take up too much space, and they kill far too many pedestrians and cyclists.

Climate doomism means I'm gonna need a bigger pickup truck

We know which way we have to go, but everyone seems to be running in the opposite direction.

Air conditioning is a hot topic these days

The CBC interviewed me about the subject; my views on it are changing because the climate is changing.

Upfront Carbon helps kill replacement of Marks & Spencer's Oxford Street store

We will be seeing more of this worldwide as embodied carbon is taken into account. There are lessons here that apply everywhere, including Toronto.

Let's get creative with our office-to-residential conversions

They might be cheaper, faster, and a lot more fun if we throw out the rules.

Listen to Zero Ambitions: PH+ Revisited

My first attempt at hosting a podcast, in a discussion with Kate de Selincourt.

The three little pigs got it wrong

When it comes to upfront carbon emissions, straw is a lot better than brick.

It's time to make side guards mandatory on every truck in North America

And now that Olivia Chow is mayor, we should start in Toronto.

Quit whining. Even the Dutch don't all cycle like the Dutch.

Many are complaining about a new study that says if we cycled like the Dutch, carbon emissions would drop by more than all of Canada's emissions. But it wouldn't be so hard.

Buildings can be too tall and too thin.

Yes, it is time for a big fat honking carbon tax on these ridiculous exercises in excess.

“Fist pumps for R290 Monoblocs!”

Journalist David Roberts once wrote "Fist pumps for heat pumps!" but we have to be more specific.

The Canadian connections and parallels to the UK drinking water crisis

This is what happens when you privatize, cut “red tape” and eliminate oversight: things cost more and don’t work as well, and sometimes people die.

Can architects and designers make a difference in the climate emergency?

One prominent English architect says we should just shut up and draw, we don't matter much anyway.

From the Archives: Le Corbusier on airplanes: " in less than ten years, the whole world could fly."

It's a hundred years since Towards a New Architecture was published. There is still lots to learn from it.

Why is it so hard to hang up the car keys?

The system is set up to regulate drivers who depend on their cars rather than planning for alternatives which work for everyone.

Scoping out carbon emissions

There are currently three scopes of carbon emissions; now a fourth is being proposed, and I think this is a problem.

Why we should be designing for intermittency

Australian study shows how electric hot water heaters can shave peak loads and deal with intermittency.

How much does a tonne of carbon dioxide weigh?

Um, a tonne? But how do you visualize that?

CO2 from forest fires? Don't worry; it's biogenic carbon and doesn't count.

This is the logic that the Doug Ford government and many Europeans use to justify burning wood for electricity.

Niagara Falls: Some things never change

The falls are still marvellous, and the city is still a tacky mess.

Wildfires are another reason that every house should be Passivhaus

That campfire smell is particulate pollution caused by climate change. You’re breathing the car industry, the fossil fuel industry, the cement kilns, the gas companies, and Doug Ford.

The real problem with electric cars

Rowan Atkinson's article in the Guardian misses the point: we need fewer cars.

Why we must save our "third spaces"

Get out and support your neighbourhood bar or restaurant; we need them more than ever.

From the Archives: The issue for boomers won't be "aging in place."

The real question is going to be, “how do I get out of this place?”

E-bikes are everywhere, and the CBC is on it

They are getting better and cheaper all the time; just take a look at the new Swytch kit.

Upfront or embodied carbon isn't just about buildings, it is about everything

I survived riding a bike in Dublin

It's bad enough being on the wrong side of the road, but this city makes Toronto feel like Copenhagen.

The wood revolution in building is just getting started

Architects are learning how to use less of it, and how to make it even more beautiful.

Everyone in the building industry must read "Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen"

This isn't a UK story, it's universal.

What colour is your aluminum? It makes a massive difference.

Different sources of aluminum have different carbon footprints. We should know what they are.

Up close and personal at the Ontario Science Centre

Anyone who thinks this building should be knocked down is a liar and a Philistine.

Happy 10th birthday and happy Earth Day, Bullitt Center

The world's greenest office building still sets the standard after a decade of operation.

How tall should a building be: How not to build in a climate crisis

They are incredibly inefficient at everything except making developers rich.

How big should a home be? If you're measuring upfront carbon, size matters.

Green building isn't enough; we need green zoning.

The New Manual: Light, Air and Openness

Part II- a look at the roots of modern architecture and fighting disease with design.

The problem isn't dockless e-scooters, it's dockless cars

Paris has banned rental e-scooters, and many are cheering; I'm not.