Currently, the Appendix F document lists embodied carbon of
buildings as an area for future consideration. We recommend that
this become an area of current prioritization alongside operational
decarbonization. Embodied carbon emissions of building materials
are currently at least 11% of global carbon emissions. The majority
of these embodied carbon emissions of high impact building
materials such as cement/concrete, steel, aluminum and glass are
produced during the material manufacturing (A1-A3) product stage.
Which means that once the material has been made, the emissions are
in the atmosphere and can't be taken back or reduced over time.
This also means that swift action needs to be taken today to
mitigate the emissions of building and infrastructure projects
currently in procurement and construction, if zero carbon targets
necessary to mitigate climate impacts and limit global warming are
to be met.
Since 2020, there has been a swift increase in both the
understanding of embodied carbon emissions in the building and
construction sector, as well as the verified data and tools
necessary to support accounting for and reducing it, via whole
building life cycle assessments during design and low carbon
procurement requirements during material specification and
procurement. California has been a leader in the latter, with its
implemented Buy Clean California policy, and now there are similar
procurement policies with aligned requirements in jurisdictions
across the United States (city, county, state and federal), as well
as work being done at the international level via the United
Nations Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative
(IDDI).
It would be a detriment to this plan if embodied carbon was not
included in today's requirements, and recommend that items such as
broadening the materials included in the Buy Clean California Act,
as well as requiring whole building life cycle assessments for
project over a certain scale/scope are key focus areas for study
and implementation.
The Carbon Leadership Forum's Policy Toolkit is a great resource
that outlines embodied carbon policy requirements as well as
provides a map of currenly implemented or proposed policies
globally:
https://carbonleadershipforum.org/clf-carbon-policy-toolkit/#:~:text=The%20Carbon%20Leadership%20Forum%20has,to%20radically%20reduce%20embodied%20carbon.
Building Transparency's free, open access Embodied Carbon in
Construction Calculator (EC3) and complimentary WBLCA Revit Plugin,
Tally, are examples of the broadly adopted tools in place to
provide the data and assessment mechanism for such policies, with
continued growth in adoption and use across the private and public
sector: https://www.buildingtransparency.org/
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