Determining Architecture's Footprint: Preliminary Methods for Measuring the True Environmental Impact of Buildings

Current approaches to designing sustainable buildings are inadequate for meeting environmental goals. Buildings continue to consume nearly half of all resources, and architects, engineers, and contractors remain complicit in their deficient environmental performance—as well as the consequential global overshoot of resource consumption. It is imperative that the AEC industry pursue an alternative approach to green rating systems with the intent to determine measurable, absolute outcomes. The most appropriate existing model is the ecological footprint (EF) method devised by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees at the University of British Columbia in the early 1990s. EF quantifies the human demand on the environment in terms of both resources and waste, translating these impacts into land area equivalents. This chapter aims to evaluate EF methodology for buildings by analyzing existing models and proposing new approaches while identifying their respective opportunities and limitations.