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On Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021, there are warehouses in California.
Roger Kisby/Bloomberg.
The dominance of warehouses in the US could affect efforts to tackle climate change. According to data recently released by the US Energy Information Administration, warehouses and storage units have become the most common commercial buildings in the country. That could cause greenhouse gas emissions to go up or go down depending on whether warehouses can ditch natural gas.
Gas heating systems are easy to install and cheap, which makes them more popular in warehouses than in office buildings. Even though warehouses use less energy than offices, there is a risk that their reliance on gas could increase emissions from commercial buildings, which are already responsible for 16 percent of the country's greenhouse gas pollution. To reach its goal of halving America's planet-warming carbon pollution compared to 2005 levels by 2030, the Biden administration will have to clean up warehouse operations.
The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's building subsector leader says that the strategy has to be adapted if the building sector has moved. It is concerning that space heating energy use is less efficient.
The boom in warehouses is due to e- commerce.
The boom in warehouses is due to e- commerce. Amazon uses massive distribution centers to sort and send their goods. According to the commercial real estate firm, every $1 billion in online sales creates 1.25 million square feet of warehouse space demand. In 1999 the US had just over 10 billion square feet of storage space, but in the most recent year for which the EIA has data, it has ballooned to 17 billion square feet. Football fields would cover more floorspace.
The demand for warehouse space has gone up even more because of the Pandemic. Online shopping became more popular. Retailers are increasingly storing excess inventory in warehouses because consumers still demand quick deliveries. Demand for retail and office space has been affected by the Pandemic because of remote work.
There is room for warehouses to improve their impact on the environment. warehouse developers can take the lead of office buildings that have been quicker to switch from natural gas to electric heat pumps. The gas industry is trying to derail efforts by some climate-conscious cities to ban natural gas hook-ups in new construction.
There is a lot of space for warehouses to grow.
Pollution from warehouses gas heating is a bigger problem. In sunny Southern California, a lot of e-commerce warehouses are located. There has been more warehouse growth in colder regions in the midwest, which raises the need for transitioning warehouses to cleaner heating. Office buildings are more insulated against the elements than warehouses. Longer operating hours for warehouses may mean bigger heating bills as the Biden administration moves to keep ports open 24/7.
If warehouses are able to sort out the heating issue, their rising popularity could potentially drive down greenhouse gas emissions for the commercial building sector. According to the EIA, unrefrigerated warehouses use less energy per square foot than office buildings. There aren't as many computers to keep running or people to keep comfortable with air conditioning and hot water. Having a larger share of less energy-intensive buildings like warehouses could bring down total commercial energy use, according to an email from an economist at the EIA.
Other environmental issues can be tackled with warehouses. According to Liu, finding sustainable alternatives to materials like cement should be a priority this decade because they are responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Diesel trucks can cause health threats to nearby neighborhoods by emitting tailpipe pollution. That shows the benefits of clean energy.
Related.
Satellite images show online shopping.
