A group of built environment industry groups and movement leaders is proud to share a new collaborative initiative — the Embodied Carbon Harmonization and Optimization (ECHO) Project — to tackle the challenge to rapidly reduce embodied carbon in built environments by ensuring that all embodied carbon reporting at the whole building and whole project scale (including landscapes and infrastructure) in the US follow the same clear definitions and scopes of included impacts.

CLF will lead the coordination and facilitation of the ECHO Project as it enters its second phase going forward into 2024, taking on the role after a successful launch led by Architecture 2030. The ECHO Project intends to continue meeting to further define scopes and accounting practices for embodied carbon in the built environment, as well as to discuss future projects including the potential for joint participation in a central data repository of whole project embodied carbon data points for building and infrastructure projects, to assist in policy making and standards setting efforts.

First drafts of the North American Minimum Project Embodied Carbon Reporting Framework V1.0 and the data reporting schema are being shared with partners, and we expect to publish public-facing resources in early 2024.

Embodied carbon policies are spreading rapidly across the United States and the world. In February, 2020, CLF launched a new map displaying public policies at various levels of government aimed at reducing embodied carbon emissions in materials and construction. At the moment of the map's launch, we were able track a handful of such policies in just seven US states, along with a few promising initiatives and policies in Europe. Since then, embodied carbon policies have exploded in number, both in North American and across the globe.

Our new map tracks over 230 government policies at all levels — local, state, national, and international. The map is an invaluable component of CLF's Embodied Carbon Policy Toolkit, which also includes an educational video series and downloadable PDF modules for essential embodied carbon understanding, summary of Buy Clean legislation, guidance on disclosure, steps to develop Buy Clean policy, guidance on implementing Buy Clean, and more.

by Anber Rana

I am a professional architectural engineer with over five years of experience in researching and teaching sustainable built environments. My passion for sustainable construction was ignited by the environmental impacts of construction industry. This instilled in me the significance of finding solutions for sustainable built environment.

My educational journey includes a bachelor’s and master’s degree in building engineering, where I honed my expertise in building sciences. However, my direct exposure to life cycle assessment and embodied carbon of buildings began when I joined the Life Cycle Management Laboratory program (UBC Okanagan) for my PhD studies.

Article by Emily Flynn, Founding Researcher at Tangible
Illustrations by Farah Assir, Designer at Tangible

Over the past few decades, building performance in North America has improved largely as a result of building codes. The opportunity for impact is substantial, as buildings account for almost 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, of which building operations make up 27% and building materials such as concrete and steel make up 11% (this is also known as embodied carbon). To date, the industry has mostly focused on improving the operational performance of buildings. Since the introduction of building energy efficiency measures in the 1970s, there has been a groundswell of operational energy code requirements for buildings at the national, state, and local level.

The Carbon Leadership Forum issued the Challenge for MEP engineers to design all projects to meet net zero carbon goals by 2040. Over 100 firms have now signed on to join the movement.

The whole-carbon balance for energy-using MEP systems has been an elusive topic for many. As operational carbon continues to be a focus, our understanding of embodied carbon ramps up, and low-GWP refrigerants consistently face regulatory challenges, making informed decisions based on the whole picture is a complex problem that our industry has yet to solve. The Seventh Quarterly Forum on September 14, 2023 focused on the whole-carbon balance between operational and embodied carbon for energy-using MEP systems.

Member Impact

What is your personal motivation for addressing climate change, and what are you and your organization doing to help reduce embodied carbon emissions?