Why residential renovation should be part of today’s agenda
Putting residential renovation on the agenda now can help local and national governments to restart their economies while also achieving Paris Climate goals. Being one of the most impactful economic recovery measures to create local jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, renovation is a powerful tool at a time where both the climate and our economies are being challenged.
Job creation
The construction industry is comparatively labour-intensive and locally-founded, meaning that any investment here will heavily contribute towards local job creation. In fact, for each $1.2 million invested in renovation 18 local jobs are secured. Scaling that up to a national level, it means that a well-designed incentive scheme could help create thousands of jobs to help restart the local economy.
Making the most of what we have
Energy efficient renovation is one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a medium-depth energy retrofit offers an internal rate of return (IRR) over 30 years of five to six percent. This pay-off is higher than most other investments carrying that same risk, making it a profitable investment for both homeowners and investors alike.
Circularity
The construction industry consumes too many resources and produces too much waste. Twenty five percent of the world’s water and 40 percent of its resources are used by buildings, while creating one-third of all waste and 40 percent of global carbon emissions. By selecting sustainable and circular construction materials, we can save energy and resources, and limit waste. Stone wool is one of these sustainable building materials. Not only is stone one of the most abundant raw materials on the planet, at ROCKWOOL, we have also developed our technology in a way that allows us to use waste from other industries as alternative raw material. Our products can be easily removed when a building is renovated, or demolished and recycled back into new products. In fact, stone wool can be recycled again and again into new stone wool – a truly circular building material.
Greening our building stock
Buildings consume 40 percent of the final energy demand and is responsible for an equal portion of the greenhouse gas emissions. This makes buildings the single largest energy consumer. Comparatively, airplanes produce only around two percent of global CO2 emissions. With renovation holding the potential to reduce energy consumption in buildings by up to 90 percent, it is a potent way to achieve a low carbon society.
