“Groundbreaking study on embodied carbon comparing new build to retrofit and addition in Halifax Canada ignored by city, author told to ‘stop making things up.” Should be studied closely, big implications.” writes Lloyd Alter, well-known author at Treehugger in a review of the new report, Buildings For a Climate Crisis, by Peggy Cameron. “The lessons of a study from Halifax, Canada can be applied anywhere,”

Read Alter’s review of the study.

Download Buildings For the Climate Crisis

Image: Halifax Waterfront. Henryk Sadura/ Getty Images

Alter writes: Many booming cities are desperately short of housing and developers are responding with even taller buildings. Many urbanists believe this is a good thing, although studies have shown that life-cycle and operating emissions increase with building height. This is why I have always pitched what I called the “Goldilocks Density,” making the case that you can get significant residential densities without tall buildings—just look at Paris or Montreal.