Research

2021 Material Baselines

Baseline Report | July 2021In order to set achievable targets, it is necessary to have a baseline from which to compare products within a material or product category. In January, the Carbon...

Buildings & Cities: Embodied carbon in construction materials

Published in Buildings & Cities in the Special Collection: "Carbon metrics for buildings and cities" Publication date: September 2020 Authors: Brook Waldman, Monica Huang, Kathrina Simonen...

Buy Clean Washington Study

Research Purpose: Review and evaluate embodied carbon policies to limit the embodied carbon of structural materials used in State building projects. About On January 8, 2018, members of the...

Carbon-Storing Materials

Summary Report | February 2021The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): “Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees C will require removing carbon from the atmosphere in addition to reducing...

EC3 Tool Methodology Beta – 2019

NOTE This beta document has been superseded by the 2021 Material Baselines Report, published in February 2021. The 2021 report constitutes an update to the 2019 Beta Baselines with improved data...

Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study

Research Question: What are the typical magnitudes and ranges of embodied carbon in buildings? About The Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study is the first stage of the LCA for Low Carbon...

LCA of a WeWork Tenant Improvement Project

Research Questions: What are the environmental impacts of a typical WeWork office? How can WeWork reduce embodied carbon across its construction supply chain? About WeWork provides office...

LCA of Katerra’s CLT and Catalyst Building

Research Purpose: Analyze environmental impacts of Katerra’s CLT supply chain, as well as its Catalyst Building. About Katerra commissioned the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) and Center for...

LCA of MEP Systems and Tenant Improvements

Research Question: What are the typical ranges of embodied carbon (and other impact measures) for mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) and tenant improvement (TI)? About This study is an...

Low Carbon Concrete Sidewalk Pilot – 2020

Case Study This case study provides information on the City of Portland's first round of low-carbon concrete pilot projects, featuring sidewalk ramps within the City's Bureau of Transportation....

Mass Timber Optimization and LCA

Research Purpose: Explore how mass timber buildings can be optimized for material efficiency, and support a regionally-specific LCA case study of a mass timber office building in the Pacific...

Seismic Damage (ATC/FEMA P-58)

Research Purpose: Develop a comprehensive database of structural and non-structural building component repair. About In evaluating the life cycle environmental impacts of buildings, the...

Tornado Resilience and Sustainability

Research Purpose: Develop embodied carbon estimates of tornado damage to an interdisciplinary NSF research project. Summary Strong winds such as those produced by tornadoes and hurricanes have...

Transformative Carbon-Storing Materials

Accelerating an Ecosystem | October 2021The potential for meaningful climate impact through materials that serve as carbon sinks now gives such materials a clear advantage, with the potential to...

UW Population Health Building

Research purpose: Determine if the UW Population Health facility would meet the requirements of LEED’s whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA) credit. About The Hans Rosling Population...

Wood Carbon Seminars

Research Purpose: Answer common and critical questions about the carbon impacts of wood from the building industry. The Wood Carbon Seminars was an 8-part webinar series hosted by the Carbon...