A tool to quantify emission reductions and climate/health co-benefits from building energy use reductions

Buildings consume nearly 40% of primary energy production globally. Green and energy-efficient buildings have substantially reduced energy consumption and they also focus on improving indoor environmental quality. However, to our knowledge, the co-benefits to climate and health through reductions in energy consumption and concomitant reductions in air pollution emissions have not yet been carefully examined. To address this issue, the authors developed a Co-benefits of the Built Environment (CoBE) tool to comprehensively quantify greenhouse gas/air pollutant emission reductions and monetized climate change/health co-benefits from building energy use reductions. As a case study, we employed this tool to estimate the climate and health co-benefits of LEED-certified green buildings compared to conventional buildings in the U.S. The results show that the U.S. LEED-certified buildings have accumulated $6.71B in energy cost savings, $1.28B ($0.39B-$1.99B) in climate-related benefits and $2.68B ($1.49B-$3.87B) in direct health benefits from air pollutant emission reductions from 2000 to 2016.