Craig Schwitter sees carbon emissions as more than a ‘big problem’ for the world. Carbon, he said, is a potentially fatal problem that demands large-scale solutions.

‘Our environment is dying,’ Schwitter said. ‘It’s being killed by us, by design, by intentional things that we do, and it must be stopped.’

For the students who filled Slocum Auditorium almost to capacity for Tuesday’s lecture at 5 p.m., Schwitter, a principal in international engineering consultancy firm Buro Happold, carried a simple message: engineering bears great social responsibility.

That is why Schwitter, a native New Yorker who created the first North American branch of Buro Happold Consulting Engineers in 1999 and now oversees more than 200 employees in the United States, seeks to curb carbon emissions on a large scale, ranging from buildings to infrastructure to entire cities, he said.

Environmentally conscious architecture, Schwitter said, isn’t valued properly, and developers are unlikely to seek low carbon footprints if doing so is unprofitable. Because buildings account for half of all carbon emissions in the United States, developers must profit from green construction if there is any hope the Earth’s temperature will not rise two degrees Celsius by 2050, which is seen as a disastrous ‘tipping point’ of climate change, Schwitter said.

‘Global carbon is the problem. We are killing ourselves,’ he said. ‘It’s on the tips of peoples’ tongues everywhere, except the U.S.’

Developers are starting to push toward controlling carbon emissions. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is one of many green building standards that are building considerable clout. Today, Schwitter said, not only does Buro Happold refuse to build non-LEED buildings, but he also does not know of any architects who will build a structure that cannot meet the standard.

Despite that progress, however, buildings still consume 70 percent of electricity in the United States, most of which is generated by coal, he said.

Proof already exists that green buildings carry massive performance benefits, Schwitter said. Simply giving employees a window view in their offices could save the country billions of dollars. The ample sunlight and fresh air can prevent respiratory illnesses, boost employees’ mental performance between 10 and 25 percent, and reduce fatigue and negative health symptoms, he said.

For developers, green buildings are starting to yield higher rents than traditional buildings, sending them a clear financial message, he said.

‘People shouldn’t have to be convinced to do this,’ Schwitter said.

Modern green buildings can also benefit companies more directly. Genzyme Center, completed in Cambridge, Mass., in 2003 with the help of Buro Happold, features a large atrium lit naturally by a system of mirrors and prisms that funnels sunlight to the atrium and conference rooms. Because the company sought to boost its reputation with the public, the building is open to public tours, and the building itself is mostly transparent, he said.

Five years later, 88 percent of employees report being more productive, and Genzyme executives feel the building, financed with a 25-year lease, has already paid for itself, he said.

Schwitter is starting to use the lessons of smaller-scale success to begin building carbon-neutral cities, he said. Better cities, he said, would mean better housing for the poor, and better housing for the poor is known to mean better overall health as well. Although zero-emission building has not yet arrived on such a scale, Schwitter urged students to embrace the challenge.

‘This is where it gets really complicated, but also really satisfying,’ he said.

Alex Carrillo, a sophomore civil engineering student, saw Schwitter’s lecture as a ‘wake-up call to the challenges’ of civil engineering, he said. It’s the kind of wake-up call Carrillo sought: an incentive to get informed, think big and solve the problem of all problems.

geclarke@syr.edu

Published on October 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm