Gensler’s Morgan warns of ‘collective near-death experience’ in climate crisis
Architecture firm Gensler’s ESG consultancy director, Juliette Morgan, has warned that the real estate sector and global population is facing a “collective near-death experience” in the face of the climate crisis.
Speaking at the CREtech Climate event in Copenhagen this week, Morgan said that as the threat of climate change grows, it has become too easy to hide behind generalised statistics around the impact of real estate on carbon emissions.
Instead, she added, the time has come to look at the real and human impact of a figure many have heard, but few have appreciated.
Architecture firm Gensler’s ESG consultancy director, Juliette Morgan, has warned that the real estate sector and global population is facing a “collective near-death experience” in the face of the climate crisis.
Speaking at the CREtech Climate event in Copenhagen this week, Morgan said that as the threat of climate change grows, it has become too easy to hide behind generalised statistics around the impact of real estate on carbon emissions.
Instead, she added, the time has come to look at the real and human impact of a figure many have heard, but few have appreciated.
“We have all heard the statistic now that real estate is responsible for 40% of carbon emissions,” she said. “Let me put that another way. That’s four out of 10 species that have collapsed, which we must take responsibility for. That’s four out of 10 climate related displacements. That’s four out of 10 climate related deaths. It is easy to just think of that 40% figure as a statistic, but when you make it a bit more personal it really hits home.”
She added that knowing when to do nothing rather than trying to improve a building in the name of updating an aesthetic needs to be a much more widespread approach to redesign and refurbishment, as does sharing information and collaboration.
“At Gensler, for example, we are working to specify materials that have the lowest possible impact on our earth and environment,” she said. “We will be creating a materials library and we will be sharing it.”
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