Healthy Co-Benefits of the Built Environment
Buildings consume 40% of the world’s energy. Increasing the energy efficiency of buildings can lower demand on the energy grid, resulting to a concomitant reduction in air pollutions emitted from fossil fuel power plants. The reduction of criteria air pollutants leads to immediate health co-benefits, including a reduction in premature mortality, hospitalization, and lost school or work days. The reduction of greenhouse gasses leads to climate co-benefits, including a reduction in agriculture, forestry and fisheries changes, and property damage from increased flood risk.
CoBE makes it simple to understand how decisions about your building or project can impact the health of people and communities and is geared towards decision makers who want to quantify these health and climate co-benefits of energy efficiency strategies in buildings and cities.