ASHRAE Presents at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
ASHRAE President Farooq Mehboob and Treasurer Dennis Knight presented at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Along with Architecture 2030 and International Network of Women Engineers + Scientists (INWES), ASHRAE participated in an official side event titled “Planning, Design and Development in the Global South: The ‘How To’ for People + Planet”.
The presentation focused on design and construction guidelines for equitable and resilient development related to mitigating climate change.
Mehboob displayed a series of passive design approaches from the past that are still applicable to today’s designs, including the Mughal Fort Lahore (1556 A.D.), the Statues of Seema Malakaya at the Gangaramaya Temple in Beira Lake, Sri Lanka, and Telenor office campus in Islamabad, Pakistan.
“Sustainability is not a concept we’ve invented today—it has existed for long periods of time,” said Mehboob. “We must not forget these approaches, and we can develop them in ways in which they can be adapted and incorporated into modern buildings.”
Past, present and future regional examples from Africa and the Global South and their goals of building better buildings to make them safer and more affordable, resilient and energy efficient were also shared by Dennis Knight.
Knight highlights ASHRAE’s Africa Chapter in their participation in the UN Global Alliance for Building Construction (GABC) creating the Africa roadmap for Buildings and Construction as well as the ASHRAE Indonesia and Latin America Chapters.
“Our chapters in Indonesia and Latin America are all working with the United States Department of Energy through their net-zero world initiative to work all over the global to accelerate clean energy and climate goals and transition and transfer technology to each other and share ideas,” said Knight.
Knight also highlights how the international standard task force is working to maximize the international impacts of our [ASHRAE] standards and the involvement Farooq and he have had in developing roadmaps for a healthy, sustainable planet.
“Farooq and I have been holding, with our Board of Directors and with our leadership, global summits and industry round-tables around the world throughout this year to develop roadmaps and action plans to support a healthy and sustainable indoor environment across the planet,” said Knight. “Lastly, we’ve just built a new headquarters—or actually, we renovated a 1974 building. We’ve turned a ‘74 building into net-zero energy and are currently going through scope one, two and three audits with hopes in being the first nonprofit to certify a net-zero carbon emissions building.”
The presentation is still available to watch free, with no registration required, at ashrae.org/COP27.