Zero Net Carbon design not only includes the operational impacts of buildings, energy used to operate a building’s systems, and where and how that energy is produced, but also the carbon included in the materials we use to construct our buildings. This carbon is a part of the extraction, manufacturing, transportation, use, and disposal phases of a materials useable life and is referred to as embodied carbon.
In this Part 5 of our 5-part program we will see how Embodied Carbon in materials is a significant part of the carbon footprint, how to find information about the manufacturing process, and tracking
and determining the carbon contained in our materials and offsetting that carbon to provide true Zero Net Carbon design.
Learning Objectives
1. What is Embodied Carbon and how does it contribute to our building’s carbon footprint
2. Ways to identify embodied carbon in our materials
3. Reading and understanding Environmental Product Declarations and learning to identify embodied carbon information
4. Understanding manufacturer programs and how they can reduce our project embodied carbon
5. Cataloging our project materials for total Embodied Carbon and using assessment tools to determine building materials impacts. How we offset those carbon contributions from our building's materials.