translated from Spanish: The challenge of reducing greenhouse gases in buildings by 90%

In order to push the development of near-Nulo Energy Consumption Building (NZEB) in Chile and Latin America, the Passivhaus Chile Institute proposed as an example the strategy that several public administrations and local governments have adopted in Europe to transform and renovate the real estate park following the Paris Agreement, adopting efficient construction standards with proven results, such as Passivhaus.
Jordi Llovera, Training Manager of the Passivhaus Chile Institute, stressed that the consolidation of this German certification has direct relation to that it requires reducing the energy consumption of the houses to less than 15 kWh/m2 per year, while the consumption of a conventional home in Chile is 192 kWh/m2 per year.
“Therefore, we can reduce by 90% the energy consumption generated by Greenhouse Gases in buildings,” explained the expert, who emphasized the urgency of achieving these goals, considering that the energy that feeds the heating inside the homes in Chile comes mainly from firewood, natural gas or electricity from a coal or oil matrix.
“The use of firewood is a health problem, especially in southern cities and more vulnerable sectors. The solution to stop burning firewood is to build better isolated and more efficient homes,” he said.
From this perspective, Koldo Monreal, CEO of Onhaus Global System, agreed with the need to reduce consumption from the operation of the buildings: “If we want to save the planet, we cannot continue to consume the same thing in our home or in the office, which are the places where we spend much of our lives. We have to understand that at the rate that we are growing, it is not more efficient that uses more renewable energy, but the one that needs less energy.”
Both specialists agreed that the development of near-Nulo Energy Consumption Building (NZEB) allows the use of the same materials that exist in the industry today, but applying them intelligently, a formula that has studied and applied the Passivhaus standard for years.
“To reduce costs or CO2 emissions from transportation, you can even use indigenous materials that exist in Chile, such as sheep’s wool, straw or wood fiber as insulation. This type of transformationimproves the quality of life inside the houses, activates the local economy and give skilled use to wood instead of burning it to heat,” explained Jordi Llovera during his exhibition.

Original source in Spanish