Hey Reader,

did you ever get the question whether your building is Paris Proof?

What? Paris Proof? What do buildings have to do with Paris?

A while ago I got that question from a leading Belgian architect.

I knew he was talking about some sustainability framework from the Netherlands. And that it's linked to the Paris Climate Agreement.

But I had no clue about the details.

As the Netherlands is several years ahead when it comes to sustainable building (and they also tend to oversell what they are doing), I was curious to learn more.

In this episode I'm taking you with me. So that you don't have to look it up.

By the way: I’m still figuring out the format of this newsletter. This week I added a podcast I enjoyed last week as "Tip of the week". Please let me know what you think.

Paris Agreement on climate

Stick with me, I’ll try to make it short, but this context is important.

In 2015, countries signed the Paris Agreement and committed to limiting global warming to well below 2°C, with the ambition to stay as close as possible to 1.5°C.

According to the IPCC ( a global organisation of climate scientists), that ambition translates into a remaining global carbon budget.

Back in 2020, roughly 400 gigatons of CO₂ could still be emitted worldwide if we want a reasonable chance of staying within 1.5°C.

That’s a finite number. And since 2020 we’ve already burned quite a chunk of it.

What does that mean for buildings?

The Dutch Green Building Council took that budget literally.

They did the math: how much of the 400 gigatons belongs to the Netherlands? And within the Netherlands, how much needs to be allocated to the construction sector?

• They divided the global budget based on population.
• Then they looked at the share of emissions related to construction materials.
• Which is around 11% in the Netherlands.

That slice became the construction carbon budget.

A maximum amount of CO₂ per square meter. Which is decreasing every year.

What does it take to become a Paris Proof building?

There are two criteria:

Operational carbon during the use phase. Upfront carbon from materials when building.

Operational carbon:

Normally I stay away from operational carbon in this newsletter. I’m not an expert in building services. But for the Paris Proof concept it’s important to take a look at.

• How much energy does the building consume?
• How is it heated?
• How efficient are the systems?
• What electricity mix is used?

To stay within the 1.5°C carbon budget, energy demand must fall dramatically.

With roughly two-thirds. Compared to the average energy use of existing buildings today.

For offices, that means moving from 150–200 kWh/m² per year down to around 50 kWh/m².

Embodied carbon

Here the Dutch use their MPG system. Quite a special approach:

It applies to new residential buildings and office buildings larger than 100 m².

Not only does it focus on CO₂, but it also includes impacts such as toxicity.

Each impact is converted into a shadow price. The theoretical societal clean-up cost of environmental damage.

These costs are added up for the entire building and then divided by the gross floor area and the reference lifespan.

The result is a single score expressed in euros per square meter per year.

A lower number means a lower overall environmental impact.

At the moment, the maximum MPG score is 0.8 € per m² per year for housing and 1.0 € per m² per year for office buildings.

The Paris Proof framework uses the upfront carbon emissions: materials, transport, construction. For the connoisseurs: life cycle modules A1-A5.

For each type of building, they defined a maximum value of embodied carbon per square meter.

Do Paris Proof Buildings even exist?

From what I can judge from afar both targets are really ambitious, especially for the materials. This is probably why there aren’t that many buildings yet that meet both criteria.

One great example I found is “BioPartner 5”, a laboratory in Leiden designed by Popma ter Steege architecten.

They focused on reuse of materials, e.g. 165.000 kg of reused steel is part of the structure. Not recycled steel. Direct reuse.

Brick rubble is part of the facade, system walls and interior doors found a second life in the building as well. All of this helped to keep the embodied carbon with the Paris Proof maximum.

So what?

Most sustainability frameworks like BREEAM are judging “how good” a building is. Counting scores and checking boxes.

Paris Proof checks whether a building fits within the remaining carbon budget.

Which is eventually the only question that matters if we want to keep climate change under control.

From what I’ve seen so far, I really like this approach. But to be honest: the vast majority of buildings that are being built today are far away from these targets.

Even though they might be labelled as “sustainable” and tick all the boxes on the 15 frameworks they are certified under.

Belgium is a small country. But the traffic jams can be a nightmare.

I’m sure you’ve been there as well.

So I started collecting my favorite podcast episodes in a playlist. Might be some inspiration for you as well.

Last week I listened to how Amazon works with carbon credits to reach climate neutralization. Highly touchy (and nerdy) topic by a company I’m not a huge fan of.

But I have to say, they really thought that one through. They also address embodied carbon in their buildings really well, but that’s for another time.

English, Dutch, French, German, whatever, let me know.

That's it for this week.

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful, but icy Sunday.

Best,

Simon