Perspectives April 22, 2021

Rising up: We’re on our way to decarbonizing the built environment

A look into how we’re reducing embodied carbon in meaningful ways

Amid a global pandemic, accelerated sea level rise, and record-high temperatures, the need for climate action is more urgent than ever. Countries across the world are taking action—from the U.S. rejoining the Paris Agreement, to Canada, the U.K, and China targeting net-zero carbon emissions. But with the building and construction sector contributing to nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, the AEC industry plays a particularly vital role in reducing carbon.

Here’s what we’re doing to make a difference:

Resetting the Carbon Balance

The carbon life cycle of a building

Greenhouse gas emissions are released throughout the whole life cycle of a building's materials and products.

Status Quo

This represents how much of the built environment is designed and constructed, depleting more resources than it can replenish.

Net-Zero Carbon

With careful planning and analysis, some projects may be able to balance their own carbon impact through on- site planting and certified carbon- storing materials.

Embodied Carbon refers to the carbon emitted by the manufacturing, extraction, transportation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials and products.

Currently, most of the built environment depletes more resources than it can replenish.

But through communication and accountability, we can reach a point where projects sequester as much carbon as they emit.

This carbon rebalance is a long-term commitment, and in the last two years alone, we've been making concerted strides.

Our internal Carbon Practice Guide

This is our comprehensive resource for understanding and reducing carbon emissions through the design process.

What's next?

The building industry is still establishing best practices for reducing embodied carbon. We’ve been actively conducting life cycle assessments (LCAs) at every stage of the design process, from concept design to construction, through a combination of industry-available LCA tools, coupled with supply-chain accountability tools like the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) to inform our procurement decisions.

By making smart design choices and forming industry-wide collaborations, we’re on our way to decarbonizing the built environment.

Learn more:

Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment—A Primer

Lessons Learned from Piloting an Industry Game-Changer

Carbon-Span Calculator Research Report

Net-Zero Now Report

April 22, 2021

On Our Way to Net Zero

看看我们如何以有意义的方式减少内含碳

在全球流行病，加速的海平面上升和创纪录的高温下，对气候行动的需求比以往任何时候都更为紧迫。从美国重新加入《巴黎协定》到加拿大，英国和中国，全球各国都在采取行动，以实现零碳净排放为目标。但是随着建筑业的发展，全球碳排放量的40％，AEC行业在减少碳排放方面起着至关重要的作用。

当我们纪念2021年地球日时，我们正在采取以下行动：

重置碳平衡

建筑物的碳生命周期

在建筑物材料和产品的整个生命周期中都会释放温室气体。

现状

这表示设计和构造了多少构建环境，消耗的资源超出了其补充能力。

净零碳

通过仔细的计划和分析，某些项目可能能够通过现场种植和经认证的储碳材料来平衡自身的碳影响。

实施碳是指建筑材料和产品的制造，提取，运输，维护和处置所排放的碳。

当前，大多数已构建环境消耗的资源超出了其补充能力。

但是，通过沟通和问责制，我们可以达到项目封存碳排放量的程度。

碳平衡是一项长期的承诺，仅在过去的两年中，我们一直在共同努力。

我们的内部碳实践指南

这是我们在设计过程中了解和减少碳排放的综合资源。

下一步是什么？

建筑行业仍在建立减少含碳量的最佳实践。从概念设计到施工，我们一直在设计流程的每个阶段都积极进行生命周期评估（LCA），方法是结合使用业界可用的LCA工具和供应链问责工具，例如建筑计算器中的含碳量（EC3）告知我们的采购决定。

通过做出明智的设计选择并形成全行业的合作关系，我们正朝着使建筑环境低碳化的方向迈进。

学到更多：