Article: "Don’t knock down that 50-year-old building; re-skin it"

[MetroMPG]

I just read an article about a competition called the "Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Awards"

The Zerofootprint Prize

started by Ron Dembo, founder and chief executive of the Toronto clean-tech software and services firm Zerofootprint. The worldwide competition has helped focus attention on efforts to make older buildings more energy efficient – and better looking – by recreating their outer shells and other components.

Award winners include everything from small, single family houses, to apartment complexes, to other commercial buildings.

EG:



60 year old wartime house in Toronto, Ontario. Originally built with minimal insulation, single pane glass, etc.

Since winning the re-skin it award in 2010, the house...

... has acted as the prototype for the retrofitting of five similar houses in Windsor, Ontario, that are owned by a social housing agency. The original Now House re-skinning and retrofit resulted in energy savings of approximately 70 percent per year for the existing bungalow.

Source: Re-Skinning Award

Speaking of a re-skinning/conversion of an old car dealership, the architect says:

Though these changes conserve energy, Mr. Hastings says the biggest environmental benefit came simply from reusing the old building rather than knocking it down and starting over.
“The re-skinning I think makes it valuable and new again,” he says.

The big problem, not surprisingly, is cost of retrofitting. The process isn't common, because the up front cost falls on the current building owner. Since all future owners will benefit, one suggestion is to have the cost of the upgrade made available in a public (gov't) loan which is repaid over time through an additional fee on the property tax bill.

Such a scheme would mean minimal risk for governments, Dr. Dembo says, since building owners rarely default on property taxes because of the risk of losing the property if they do.
Sometimes called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, a few such initiatives exist in the United States. The City of Vancouver has a loan program to help homeowners make energy-efficiency improvements, but doesn’t lump repayments into property tax bills.

Article: Don’t knock down that 50-year-old building; re-skin it - The Globe and Mail