Justice
Why the Most Environmental Building is the Building We've Already Built
A new report suggests that retrofitting is almost always more energy efficient
Reusing an old building pretty much always has less of an impact on the environment than tearing it down, trashing the debris, clearing the site, crafting new materials and putting up a replacement from scratch. This makes some basic sense, even without looking at the numbers.
But what if the new building is super energy-efficient? How do the two alternatives compare over a lifetime, across generations of use?