The Growing Significance of Embodied Carbon

Between now and 2060 the world’s population will be doubling the amount of building floor-space, equivalent to building an entire New York City every month for 40 years. Much of the carbon footprint of these new buildings will take the form of embodied carbon — the emissions associated with building material manufacturing and construction.

We invite you to join our coalition of architects, engineers, contractors, materials suppliers, building owners, policymakers, and associations committed to radically decarbonizing buildings and building materials.

Embodied carbon is an urgent problem

In order to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, it is essential that we reduce embodied carbon now and develop a pathway to low-carbon construction on every building project. Transforming the building industry cannot wait.

The Carbon Leadership Forum’s mission is to eliminate embodied carbon in buildings and infrastructure by inspiring innovation through collective action to create a just and thriving future. Learn more about embodied carbon and what we can do to reduce its use and impact.

Research is critical to decarbonization

CLF engages in a variety of research programs and projects designed to improve data, methodologies, and tools to drive the reduction of embodied carbon. We regularly publish featured research in policy, data and tools, materials, life cycle assessment (LCA), and more. Learn about our approach to research and explore our projects here.

Easy access to industry-leading research

By developing, crowdsourcing and disseminating this information, we aim to to accelerate learning and increase knowledge. Our resource library contains case studies, features, reports, toolkits, videos, and more. By empowering members with resources authored by CLF and our industry partners, we are advancing new ideas and approaches to transform the building industry.

Become A Member of Our Global Network

CLF facilitates broad collaboration among diverse individuals and organizations to navigate complexity and support the transformation and decarbonization of the global building industry. We invite you to join our online community, a regional CLF hub, or our NGO/Government Roundtable. Learn more about our members and our sponsors here.