Events

Lunch 'n Learn: Embodied Carbon as a Performance Metric


When: 11/9/2022 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Where: 
C Design Office or Zoom
1000 W. Morehead Street
The topic of embodied carbon in the AEC industry has become a critical issue. Buildings alone account for 40% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Two-thirds of that total impact is from operational emissions while the remainder is from embodied emissions. Embodied emissions include all the emissions required to produce everything that goes into our buildings the structure, enclosure and all the materials inside. Historically, the focus in the design community has been on reducing operational emissions since they represent the majority of the total impact. In response, the AEC community has been able to reduce operational emissions in the built environment through designing smarter buildings, as a result the recent focus has shifted to the other one-third of the pie, embodied carbon. In response to a new focus on embodied carbon, the USGBC included a new credit under the materials section, Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction, where there is an option to perform a Whole Building Lifecycle Assessment (WBLCA) worth a total of 3 points in v4 and 4 points in LEED v4.1. The goal of the WBLCA is to reduce the embodied impacts of a building by quantifying the environmental impacts of structure and enclosure. This course provides an overview of embodied carbon, the role that structural engineers play in the sustainable design process, how design teams can measure and minimize carbon impacts in building systems, and an understanding of how sustainable structural design integrates with other building systems to reduce overall impact. We will also review Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment and LEED v4 through a recent case study.

List of Attendees

First Name Last Name Company Type Guest of
Susana Amaral Britt Peters and Associates In person attendee
shelly blakesley wattsleaf.com In person attendee
Doug Broome Little Virtual attendee
Chuck Cardwell Walter P Moore In person attendee
Robert Crane C Design Inc In person attendee
Megan DAlbora Little Virtual attendee
Joe Humphrey C Design In person attendee
Felicia Jones Kingdom land Builders In person attendee
W. Lee Jones Mecklenburg County Park & Recreation Department Virtual attendee
Paul Krynski C Design In person attendee
Ken Lambla UNC Charlotte Virtual attendee
Frank Little Neighboring Concepts Virtual attendee
William Luce Walter P Moore In person attendee
Dan McDonald CarolinaEast Medical Center - Construction Dept Virtual attendee
Lauren Mettler HDR Inc. Virtual attendee
Jasir Mills C Design Inc. In person attendee
Robert Moore Robert E. Moore.Architect Virtual attendee
Carl Nalls Housing Studio Virtual attendee
Thomas Pawlowski Walter P Moore In person attendee
Cassandra Soler SGA NW Virtual attendee
Byard Stevens Adams an Oldcastle Company In person attendee
Charles Thornton Walter P Moore In person attendee
Kevin Utsey Clark Nexsen Virtual attendee
Bethany Whitehurst Clark Nexsen, Inc. Virtual attendee
julia wilson GL Wilson Building Company Virtual attendee