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Italiano Carbon Leadership Forum Launched as Independent Nonprofit Organization
What’s happening
We have made an exciting transition that will allow us to accelerate our work with industry leaders and policymakers to radically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to buildings and infrastructure.
We have moved to expand our influence and impact by creating two entities:
- The Carbon Leadership Forum has become an independent nonprofit organization to double down on our urgent research, education, and cross-sector collaboration that drives the data, tools, and policy changes needed to eliminate embodied carbon from buildings and infrastructure. The organization is led by Anthony Hickling as CLF’s new executive director and Meghan Lewis as CLF’s new program director. Kate Simonen serves as the board chair of the new nonprofit organization.
- At the same time, Kate is maintaining an academic research group at the University of Washington College of Built Environments under a newly named Life Cycle Lab to lead embodied carbon and life cycle assessment research that informs policy and practice. We are grateful for our long-standing relationship with the University of Washington and are excited about our ongoing and evolving partnership.
Together, the Carbon Leadership Forum and Life Cycle Lab work collaboratively to achieve our vision of a transformed, decarbonized building industry — creating better buildings for a better planet.
Why
Buildings already contribute around 40% of energy related greenhouse gas emissions across the globe. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, it’s critical we act with boldness and determination to reduce embodied carbon of buildings and infrastructure — the carbon emissions associated with materials, design, and construction practices.
These organizational changes will enable both entities to be more effective, efficient, and impactful in advancing research, cross-sector collaboration, and scaled action to bring embodied carbon emissions down to zero. Now, they both will be able to focus on, scale up, and sustain the work in new and innovative ways.
This new structure gives the Carbon Leadership Forum greater latitude to scale our work by leading new projects, raising funds, and supporting a growing community of embodied carbon leaders.
Backed by the UW, the Life Cycle Lab supports the next generation of researchers and pursue critical embodied carbon research with an increased focus on academic publications. The Life Cycle Lab also remains a strong, collaborative partner with the Carbon Leadership Forum.
We believe both entities allow us to capitalize on unprecedented, time-sensitive opportunities to support the speed of decarbonization required to meet global climate goals.
Our commitment
You can expect us to bring the same, if not more, drive and energy to radically reduce embodied carbon from the building sector.
This transition is about growth, not downsizing. All current staff have a home, either at the Carbon Leadership Forum or at the Life Cycle Lab at the UW.
Addressing the climate crisis is relational work and will require all of us working collaboratively. We remain committed to the invaluable partnerships we hold with so many of you, and look forward to continuing to engage with you through both the Carbon Leadership Forum and the Life Cycle Lab.
We launched the new independent Carbon Leadership Forum nonprofit organization in April 2024. Both entities continue to collaborate to determine long-term staffing and work distribution.
FAQs
Q: What is the relationship between UW and the new nonprofit?
A: The UW Life Cycle Lab and Carbon Leadership Forum remain close collaborators. You can think of them as sister organizations! As appropriate, they work together as partners, not competitors, on various aligned projects moving forward.
The UW Life Cycle Lab leans into its strengths as a hub for research advancing life cycle assessment data and methods to reduce embodied carbon. The Lab supports the next generation of researchers and pursue critical embodied carbon research with an increased focus on academic publications.
As an independent nonprofit organization, the Carbon Leadership Forum continues to develop necessary resources and facilitate scaled action to support the building industry, policymakers, and climate change leaders in accelerating decarbonization of building materials and construction.
This continues a history of successful spin-offs led by Kate Simonen at the University of Washington. Past work includes incubating the EC3 tool (which catalyzed the formation of the independent nonprofit, Building Transparency), issuing the SE2050 Challenge (now a commitment program for structural engineers hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers) and issuing the MEP2040 challenge (which spurred a volunteer led commitment effort).
Kate Simonen directs the UW Life Cycle Lab and chair the Carbon Leadership Forum’s board of directors. Anthony Hickling leads the nonprofit as executive director in partnership with Meghan Lewis as program director. Together, they provide the foundation of strategic insights and technical excellence needed to ensure that the transition to the nonprofit is impactful and effective.
Q: What new opportunities will this transition bring?
A: By expanding our work to include an independent nonprofit organization, we can scale research, education, and cross-sector collaboration that drives the data, tools, and policy changes we need to eliminate embodied carbon. At the same time, it allows us to deepen and grow our academic leadership by preserving the UW Life Cycle Lab’s focus on the innovative research and education it does best.
Q: What is the staffing plan for the two entities, both in the short- and long-term?
A: The Carbon Leadership Forum started with Anthony Hickling as CLF’s new executive director, and Meghan Lewis, CLF’s new program director.
During the initial transition, other current team members remained with the newly named Life Cycle Lab and are named ‘CLF Affiliates’ with continued structure in place for communication and collaboration between the organizations. Kate Simonen continues to direct the Life Cycle Lab.
Life Cycle Lab and Carbon Leadership Forum leadership collaborate with staff to determine each team member’s best-fit role and location.
Q: I’m a current funder of your work. How will this impact contributions moving forward?
Carbon Leadership Forum staff works with our existing philanthropic supporters to determine an appropriate fit moving forward. Existing multi-year grants stay with the university as the default.
Sponsors are asked to renew their sponsorship at the Carbon Leadership Forum on a rolling basis once their existing annual sponsorships expire. Existing sponsor levels, recognition, and associated benefits remain unchanged.
Individual donations are accepted by both CLF and the Life Cycle Lab.
Q: Are there changes to how Regional Hubs operate with the Carbon Leadership Forum?
A: Our hope, and part of our motivation for creating a new nonprofit, was that this transition enables us to scale up the support we provide Hubs. We are considering a range of structures including legal agreements and fiscal sponsorship for Hubs, as well as fundraising support and other forms of resource- and capacity-building. We expect that these changes will roll out over the next one to two years.
Q: Does the Carbon Leadership Forum continue to host the NGO/Government Roundtable on Embodied Carbon?
A: Yes! The NGO/Government Roundtable on Embodied Carbon plays an essential role in connecting nonprofits and government agencies around the globe to collaborate on tackling embodied carbon challenges and incubating new approaches to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector.
The Carbon Leadership Forum become an independent nonprofit organization to double down on our urgent research, education, and cross-sector collaboration that drives the data, tools, and policy changes needed to eliminate embodied carbon from buildings and infrastructure.