Zerofootprint Building Re-Skinning Competition

We know how to build new buildings with a low carbon footprint, but little attention has been paid to the thousands of existing structures worldwide which are extremely inefficient and have a massive carbon impact. In order to address the need to increase worldwide focus on retrofitting built spaces, Zerofootprint has announced the Zerofootprint Building Re-Skinning Competition.

In North America alone, pre-existing structures account for 40% of all greenhouse gas emissions. President Barack Obama has pledged to "rebuild and retrofit America", starting with 75% of federal buildings to save taxpayers more than $2 billion USD a year. Existing building re-skinning capabilities however are not enough to solve this problem.

Zerofootprint aims to focus the world's best architectural and technical minds on the issue, using the province of Ontario as a starting point. Ontario has been chosen as the basis of the competition due to the groundbreaking work already underway - including the City of Toronto Mayor's Tower Renewal Project. In addition, the province of Ontario experiences extreme climate conditions - from tropical weather in the summer months to arctic climates in the winter months. Due to these extreme weather variations, a re-skinning system developed and implemented in Ontario is replicable in any climate region of the world.

If you are interested in learning more about the Zerofootprint Building Re-Skinning Competition, please visit our website and do not hesitate to contact us at skinning@zerofootprint.net.

Best regards,

Deborah Kaplan
Executive Director