by Megan Kalsman, Policy Researcher, Carbon Leadership Forum

As I reflect on 2022 and the unprecedented amount of policies introduced and passed focusing on embodied carbon, it gives me hope that the building and infrastructure sector will continue to decarbonize at a level we need to meet our urgent climate goals. We saw action on the US Federal level with the historic passage of the Inflation Reduction Act dedicating over $4.5 billion of funding to advance low-carbon material production, labeling programs, and documentation primarily through the Environmental Protection Agency, General Services Agency, and Federal Highway Administration. On an international scale, the United Nations Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative took steps to stimulate global demand for low-carbon industrial materials through public and private partnerships. Additionally, we witnessed many local jurisdictions taking innovative actions to address embodied carbon in their regions. To read more about the past year’s policy updates, check out our 2022 Policy Update.

One of the projects I’ve had the privilege of advancing this past year is the Pacific Coast Collaborative Low-Carbon Construction Task Force—a coalition of governments in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California including the cities of Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. The group shares ambitious goals to tackle climate change issues and is taking a collaborative approach to reduce embodied carbon through regional policy action. Throughout the past year, I’ve seen great progress in seeking opportunities for regional alignment and building strategic partnerships within the group. The planning done in 2022 will help inspire action and implementation in 2023 and beyond. 

As we start the new year, I encourage everyone to take a step back and celebrate the hard work accomplished in 2022. I look forward to continuing to collaborate on this impactful work and we are so excited to see what 2023 brings!

All the best,

Megan

In 2022, an unprecedented number of policies were introduced and passed addressing embodied carbon reductions in the building and infrastructure sector.

by Megan Kalsman and Meghan Lewis, Carbon Leadership Forum research staff

2023 is set up to be yet another year of unprecedented action on embodied carbon policy. The US federal government, joined now by a growing set of international partners, will take bold action to reduce embodied in their building and infrastructure portfolio while providing funding, technical assistance, and other programs to states, cities, and companies across the country to implement reductions. Policies led by states, cities, and provinces will continue to lead the way and set precedent for legislative action by integrating embodied carbon across urban planning and building regulations as well as innovative incentive programs.

Editor's Note: Jordan Palmeri is a Senior Researcher on the policy team at CLF. He’s an interdisciplinary scientist and policy advisor focused on reducing the lifecycle impacts of building materials. He is an experienced leader and facilitator with demonstrated success at multiple project scales, and a systems thinker with practical implementation strategies for private and public sector initiatives. Prior to joining the CLF, Jordan was an Environmental Scientist and Policy Analyst for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

by Jordan Palmeri

When I was 13, I floated down a slow Pennsylvania river with my best friend.  Unknowingly, this amazing afternoon was the beginning of my environmental career and my fascination with rivers.

I followed the Mississippi River down to New Orleans, LA for college, where I was surrounded by water.  Some of it was beautiful and other waterways were manufactured and filthy.  It wasn’t hard to notice the social and environmental impacts of an economy built on production and consumption.  I was heavily influenced by my surroundings and shifted my studies to environmental science and policy.

After moving west, I was fortunate to work for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to protect and enhance waterways through industrial site cleanup, forestry/agricultural management, and fish protection.  

Final Report Released by the Carbon Leadership Forum and the Washington State Department of Commerce  

The Carbon Leadership Forum and the Washington State Department of Commerce have published the final report for the Buy Clean Buy Fair (BCBF) Pilot Study. The BCBF Pilot Study, which ran from June 2021 to October 2022, explored the process of setting up and running an environmental and labor reporting program for construction materials on State construction projects.

The first major task for this joint project was to develop a reporting database, which would be the first-ever known database created to collect environmental and labor data for a Buy Clean–type program. The CLF worked with a software developer, Meserow Design, to create the database, which is a prototype. Additional work will be required to make the application more durable, robust, supportable, and able to scale and evolve with the changing needs of a public reporting database.A second major task, conducted in parallel with the database development, was a case study on pilot projects. 

Editor's Note:

Delilah is an Intern with the Carbon Leadership Forum, and a current junior at the University of Washington pursuing a degree in Architecture. Her interest in the Carbon Leadership Forum stems from her motivation to create better living spaces for those experiencing housing insecurity, while focusing on tackling the issues on social and environmental issues in the Built Environment.

by Delilah Canales

I grew up in in the small agricultural and farming town of Wapato in central Washington. Wapato has a predominantly Hispanic population, but does not lack for diversity. My values of social and environmental justice were formed by my life there, and I better understood those values as I grew up. I first left Wapato a couple of years ago, moving to Seattle to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture at the University of Washington. My passion for architecture stems from my own experience of housing insecurity as well as seeing many others in my community face a housing crisis. I want to be able to give back to all those in my community. I want everybody to be able to afford good housing, to be able to call a building their home.

My first introduction to the carbon challenge was in my high school science classes, but I didn’t get the comprehensive understanding I would need. I knew carbon emissions are harmful for our environment and contribute to climate change, but what I learned in school mainly concerned carbon emissions associated with transportation, cars, buses, etc., burning fossil fuels for electricity, and deforestation.