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Deutsch What are you and your organization doing to help reduce embodied carbon emissions?
Jaclyn Lee
Structural Engineer, HOK
Growing up, my immigrant parents always stressed the importance of minimizing waste, recycling, and reusing whatever we could; and to be grateful for the clean air and the four seasons of New England. I remember repurposing everything from tin containers used for egg-roll cookies to store my crayons to altering milk jugs to hold the blackberries we would pick in the summer. To this day, and now more than ever, these values still hold true in that I make a concerted effort to reduce waste and think about how things can be reused before going into landfill.
When I began my career as a structural engineer, much of my focus was on design. It wasn’t until recently that the conversation around embodied carbon came to the forefront. It was then that I realized that my respect for the environment could also apply to the structures I was designing and that our work could have a lasting impact.
When HOK signed onto the SE2050 Challenge, I was given the opportunity to lead our firmwide efforts in reducing the embodied carbon across all our projects and reach net zero carbon by 2050. In my day-to-day, I collaborate with our architects, contractors, and engineers to ensure that we conduct at least one Life Cycle Assessment on every new HOK building project. This in turn informs our internal carbon database and benchmarking efforts from which we measure our embodied carbon reductions against. We also created an in-house dashboard to help our project teams make informed decisions on building design and material selection as it relates to embodied carbon.
What interests me most about this work is our integrated approach towards a common goal. I like to challenge my peers to think beyond code requirements and cost efficiencies and be more intentional with our designs so that, together with other firms in our industry, we can make a positive impact on the planet.
When HOK signed onto the SE2050 Challenge, I was given the opportunity to lead our firmwide efforts in reducing the embodied carbon across all our projects and reach net zero carbon by 2050. In my day-to-day, I collaborate with our architects, contractors, and engineers to ensure that we conduct at least one Life Cycle Assessment on every new HOK building project.
