Columbia University’s Alumni Center emitted 427.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022. To sequester this single year of carbon emissions, you would need to grow 7,065 urban trees for ten years. Using these numbers, my drawing attempts to set up two provocative questions for the viewer: Is there a wider understanding that LEED-certified buildings are also harsh emitters of carbon and do not generally perform better than standard buildings? Also, what is the efficacy of carbon offsetting through tree afforestation or reforestation at scale?
Over the past semester, I have closely studied Columbia’s Alumni Center through the lens of historic preservation and embodied carbon. Though many energy efficiency measures were taken in an extensive renovation by Columbia in 2009, the LEED points earned did not result in a well performing building.
The area of trees designated within the white border would need to be multiplied by seven, grow, and sequester carbon for ten years to offset just a single year of Alumni Center’s emissions. And as I tried to emphasize with the image, Alumni Center, boasting its LEED Gold status, is just one building of many within the Morningside Heights neighborhood, in the greater city of New York, and on the globe, each emitting carbon year after year.
