4. Business Case for High-Performance Reconstructed Buildings

摘要

The business case for super-green restoration of old er buildings ought to be simple. They already exist, so it's generally cheaper to restore them; they are often situated in prime real estate locations; and, in the case of historic renovations, there are often tax benefits and other incentives to sweeten the investment. On the other hand, older buildings are generally harder to work with, since the building envelope, orientation, and much of the floor layout are fixed; in historic renovations, there are often significant constraints on modernizing both the envelope and the interior. From the standpoint of sustain ability, of course, it's better not to throw away the embodied energy of all the building materials or to down-cycle them for other uses.