As the climate change impacts of building construction and operation become clearer and clearer, building designers, architects, and engineers need to take immediate action. Sustainable buildings are crucial to our future. The understanding of the carbon content of what makes up buildings, both embodied and operational, is essential. There are numerous decisions that must be made in the process of visioning and designing a building to reduce carbon content, especially the embodied carbon. This course covers the key issues of decarbonizing the building, as well as specific steps to be taken to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the building industry. The discussion will include recent research on buildings and embodied carbon, focusing on increasing sustainability. Presenters will demonstrate how engineers, architects, and owners can leverage their roles and the available tools to reduce the EC content of their buildings. Includes options for embodied carbon reduction and contributions of Architecture 2030 and the SE 2050 challenge.

Learning Objectives:

• Define what “decarbonizing” a building project means, including explaining key terms such as “embodied carbon” and “net zero carbon”.
• Use key approaches in building design, material selection and specification to reduce the embodied carbon in the building envelope and structure. Also explain the available embodied carbon tools.
• Employ beneficial electrification to reduce buildings’ operational carbon dioxide emissions.
• Design to meet building performance standards as more local jurisdictions adopt these practices to meet community greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.