The AEC sectors face a pivotal opportunity: retrofitting existing buildings to reduce carbon emissions. Recent advancements in technology have made daylighting as a dominant interior daytime light source a priority in commercial building design, especially in retrofits.

This latest issue is packed with the latest coatings products on the market, and a focus on a new trend in building restoration—deep energy retrofits.

Commercial buildings consumed 18 percent of all energy used in the U.S. in 2022. Architects are fully aware that savings can be made using a variety of different retrofit measures. Too often, however, they cannot financially justify those projects because they can’t reliably forecast the potential savings.

Rehabbing buildings with energy conservation in mind can be a massive undertaking, requiring a holistic exterior and interior approach to decrease buildings’ carbon emissions and energy consumption while minimizing disruption to current occupants. A deep energy retrofit is achieved when renovation activities reduce a building’s site energy usage by at least 40 percent.

SPRI announced that it is revising ANSI/SPRI RD-1 “Performance Standard for Retrofit Drains” and plans to canvass the document for re-approval as an American National Standard. 

Roof Hugger has relaunched its website to help customers more easily navigate the site.

Experts from Roof Hugger and McElroy Metal will be presenting “Retrofit with Metal Systems” on the opening day and the last day of the International Roofing Expo in Las Vegas.

A new study revealed that U.S. emissions from the built environment have increased by 3 percent in the last decade - a trend that looks set to continue. Research by 3Keel and Kingspan found that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from buildings are reversing in the U.S.

Reductions in carbon emissions from buildings are stalling in several G20 countries in Europe and emissions are now rising in the USA, warns a major new study from sustainability consultancy 3Keel for Kingspan.