Numerous organizations – including HGA – have jointly taken on a mission to eliminate embodied carbon from buildings by the year 2050. To achieve this goal, we will need to develop design innovations, explore new methods to communicate those innovations to suppliers and contractors, and develop metrics for reporting progress.
While this Micro-Grant did focus on strategies to reduce embodied carbon for several material types and project categories/locations, the primary focus was on reducing embodied carbon in concrete-specific designs. Cement is the key ingredient that gives concrete its strength – yet is also one of the largest emitters of CO2 in the built environment. With concrete as the world’s most abundant human-made material, cement production creates approximately 7% of the world’s CO2 emissions and is the largest contributor to embodied carbon in the built environment.
The research took place in three phases: First, conducting case studies using life cycle analysis to determine efficacy of proposed strategies for actual HGA projects. Second, creating a Performance-Based Concrete Master Specification to enable concrete mixes with reduced embodied carbon. And third, compiling the information collected and incorporating the case study results into a reference guide that can be used to communicate and execute strategies to reduce embodied carbon.
The reference guide will serve to educate clients/potential clients about HGA’s strategies to meet their sustainability goals. The guide will be a useful knowledge sharing tool and reference internally and can also be used on projects around the country to communicate strategies to a wide range of stakeholders.