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Deutsch What are you and your organization doing to help reduce embodied carbon emissions?
Bethany Whitehurst PE, SE
Structural Engineer, Clark Nexsen
I am the SE 2050 Embodied Carbon Champion for Clark Nexsen. My biggest contribution to reducing embodied carbon emissions is advocacy. I’m doing this by collaborating with groups outside of our company. I started by forming the Sustainable Design Committee with the Structural Engineers Association of North Carolina (SEA of NC). We’ve gained members through giving presentations to SEA of NC and reaching out to SE 2050 Signatory Firms with offices in our state. We’ve had great participation with our members, rotating presenters at each meeting with a new topic each month. To spread the word about SE 2050 and our committee, we’ve invited AIA to presentations and presented to the Professional Engineers of North Carolina Charlotte chapter on “Team Coordination to Reduce Carbon in Structures.” USGBC Carolinas noticed our passion and invited me to speak at USGBC Carolinas Green Gala and USGBC Carolinas Women in Green. I recently passed the torch to a new Committee Chair, allowing her to experience this leadership role and be recognized for her contributions.
As EC Champion at Clark Nexsen, I invited an outside structural engineering firm to join our SE 2050 Team meetings. This has helped keep the energy going at every meeting, with our team committed to discussing new topics each month. We want to encourage outside firms working with our architects to be familiar with embodied carbon reduction and help our firm meet sustainability goals on every project. We trained our co-workers in Architecture and Interior Design on EC calculations. Combined with operational carbon provided by our Building Science engineer, we then see the total carbon on projects.
There are so many aspects of structural engineering and sustainability to discuss with others: total carbon intensity bay studies, choosing renovation, spec. edits, balancing resilience and sustainability, integrating SE 2050 within an ESG plan… Many of us are prepared to make EC reductions; I hope this gets easier to implement on projects. Structural engineers must work together to make embodied carbon reduction in buildings possible. Start by joining or starting a Sustainable Design Committee with your state’s SEA.
