The Atelier: Battling Global Warming
As we’ve learned from the previous two posts about global warming, it’s a phenomenon that’s on the rise and causing significant harm to our planet. At the rate we’re going we are going to cause drastic, maybe irreversible, changes to our planet. In fact, just yesterday a study was published showing that five Solomon islands have been swallowed by the sea. If we act now there are things that we can do to slow down, and maybe even stop, global warming. One of the main places that we need to focus on is cities. Big cities, such as New York, emit tons of pollutants into the atmosphere every day. We need to go green. Busses and cars need to run on electricity, not fossil fuels, and buildings need to go green. Using the Atelier In New York City as a case study let’s dive in and take a look at what building owners in big cities can do to combat global warming.
According to the United States EPA, “Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation and deconstruction. The practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort. Green building is also known as a sustainable or high performance building” (conserve-energy-future.com).
Going green reduces the amount of trash that we produce, the amount of pollutants that we release into the atmosphere and slows the degradation of our environment. Efficiently using energy, water and other resources helps us reduce our overall impact on our environment.
But how can we successfully implement this in our buildings? What can we do differently?
For starters we can start utilizing new green technologies that have been emerging. The Atelier has been installing solar panels since 2011. These solar panels have generated over ten percent of the buildings energy. Solar panels make no noise, produce no greenhouse gasses and very little pollution, the only pollution being from their production, the amount of which doesn’t even come close to current pollution output from environmental damages like oil drilling. Energy production from solar panels causes no strain on the environment, as the sun is a renewable source of energy.
Another thing the Atelier has done is install motion detection lights in the hallways. This significantly reduces energy consumption, cutting costs and helping the environment.
Won’t this cost a lot of money?
The energy being created by the solar panels has saved the Atelier money that it has been able to reinvest in other areas of the building. While solar panels might be expensive to install you will see a fast return on them. In the long run these projects will save you money and help save the environment.