As interest in reducing embodied carbon in the built environment grows, the need for up-to-date embodied carbon data and comparison values to support such reductions becomes increasingly important. In my first few months working at the CLF, I have had the opportunity to help analyze the growing body of embodied carbon data at multiple scales. 

At the material scale, embodied carbon data for materials and products continue to evolve as manufacturers produce Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) that document the environmental impacts of their products’ supply chains. To incorporate the latest data, we are updating the CLF Material Baseline values, which indicate the range of expected embodied carbon impacts for a number of materials. These updated values will support policymakers, designers, and tool developers seeking a fixed point of reference that can be used to set embodied carbon targets.

At the building scale, we will soon wrap up the Pilot Phase of the Whole Building LCA Benchmark Study v2. The data collection, processing, and analysis methods employed in this Pilot Phase will help us build a robust, harmonized data set for benchmark development in future project phases. 

It has been exciting to analyze embodied carbon data through these multiple lenses and to think through which data can be used for which purposes and which kinds of analyses we can prioritize to have the most significant impact. I am hopeful that with your help, this work will support measurable embodied carbon reductions across the design and construction industries.

Warm regards,

Allison

The Carbon Leadership Forum Seeks Applicants for Several New Staff Positions

The Carbon Leadership Forum seeks applicants for several new staff positions

The Carbon Leadership Forum is hiring for several new positions that will support our mission to reduce embodied carbon reductions in the built environment, including for a new research initiative from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program, for which CLF will investigate the science and methods of carbon drawdown and storage, and develop a robust LCA framework and ecosystem of tools that can support the flow of data on novel materials into robust, comparative Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis (WBLCA) tools.

• Postdoctoral Scholar: Computational Methods for LCA Tools Development
• Buildings and Material Researcher (Research Engineer 2)
• Buildings and Material Researcher (Research Engineer 3)
• Buildings and Material Researcher (Research Engineer 4) 
• Research Coordinator 
• Postdoctoral Scholar: LCA Data analyst
• Operations Manager

Take a look at the details for all of our open and upcoming titles on our careers page.

Time to Register for the December 8 Quarterly Forum!

As of the first week of October, 50 MEP firms have signed the Commitment, along with 24 additional organizations signalling their support, including architectural, construction, and structural engineering firms, and NGOs such as the AIA, Architecture 2030, and the Passive House Network. 

MEP 2040 signatories are publicly pledging their firms to decarbonize MEP systems, and commiting themselves and their firms to collective action, supported by transparent data, rigorous science, careful engineering, and thoughtful collaboration.

View recording of the September Quarterly Forum on the MEP 2040 website.

The 4th Quarterly Forum will be held on Thursday, December 8 at 8am PST. Please register in advance for this essential meeting. 

Register Here

For the fourth MEP2040 quarterly forum, we will be joined by policy-makers for a panel discussion on current and forthcoming initiatives related to holistic embodied carbon reductions, including the critical role of MEP systems. Our goal is to hear more about the work being done, what the obstacles and opportunities are, and how we can collaborate to support the development of integrated policy that helps us all achieve our decarbonization goals.

October Breaking News from the SE 2050 initiative!

• 93 structural engineering firms have joined the Commitment
• 170 low-carbon projects have been submitted to the SE 2050 database
• 65 companies have published embodied carbon action plans  

SE 2050 stands for the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment Program that is in response to the SE 2050 Challenge issued in 2019 by the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) and the SE 2050 Commitment Program developed by the Sustainability Committee of the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This comprehensive program has been designed to ensure substantive embodied carbon reductions in the design and construction of structural systems by the collective structural engineering profession.

The SE 2050 Commitment Program is being developed in response to the SE 2050 Challenge which states:

All structural engineers shall understand, reduce and ultimately eliminate embodied carbon in their projects by 2050.

In December 2019 the SEI Board of Governors endorsed the vision of the SE 2050 Challenge by stating:

We, the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), support the vision and ambition of the SE 2050 Challenge. We, as a leading structural engineering organization in the United States, recognize the need for coordinated action across our profession to achieve the globally stated goal of net zero carbon by 2050.

Carbon Leadership Forum Opens
Advisory Board Applications

The Carbon Leadership Forum advisory board provides strategic guidance to help accelerate the transformation of the building sector to radically reduce the embodied carbon in building materials and construction through collective action. Board members meet regularly to hear reports on current CLF research and development projects, to provide practical advice and to engage in outreach to deepen and extend the CLF community. 

We're especially interested in a range of new board members, including people from a variety of professions, and diverse communities, skillsets, and locations. A key consideration will be to discover new members who can help us in our work to center equity, defined as "fairness and justice achieved through systematically assessing disparities in opportunities, outcomes, and representation and redressing [those] disparities through targeted actions ,” Adapted from Urban Strategies Council