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Breakthrough tool launched at Greenbuild empowers users to radically reduce embodied carbon in buildings and infrastructure

sarah Jonas

Today, with the formal launch of the public beta of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (“EC3”) tool at Greenbuild, the building industry has a powerful tool to take action on an area of growing concern — embodied carbon emissions of building materials.

This free, open-access tool, based on the industry’s first database of digitized Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), will allow architects, engineers, owners, construction companies, building material suppliers and policymakers to easily evaluate and reduce embodied carbon emissions from construction materials, effectively empowering them to reduce embodied carbon within buildings at scale.

The building and construction sectors have a vital role to play in eliminating carbon, as it is responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Architecture 2030 reports that between now and 2060 the world’s population will double the amount of building floor-space, equivalent to building an entire New York City every month for 40 years. Much of the carbon footprint of these new buildings will take the form of embodied carbon — the emissions associated with material production and building construction. 

In fact, Architecture 2030 reports that embodied carbon will be responsible for almost half of total new construction emissions between now and 2050. Unlike operational carbon emissions, which can be reduced over time with building energy-efficiency renovations and the use of renewable energy, embodied carbon emissions are locked in place as soon as a building is built.

“It is critical that owners, designers, engineers, contractors and policymakers turn their attention to building materials and seek information that will pave the way to reduce embodied carbon,” said Kate Simonen, director of the Carbon Leadership Forum and professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. “Recognizing this imperative, the Carbon Leadership Forum and nearly 50 industry leaders came together to offer their expertise, committed to a tool that was free to use and part of a growing open-access embodied carbon data ecosystem.”

Industry Firsts

The EC3 tool is the first free tool that allows for supply chain specific analysis of embodied carbon data, utilizing the first searchable and sortable database of all United States and Canadian Environmental Product Declarations for concrete, steel, wood, glass, aluminum, insulation, gypsum, carpet and ceiling tiles.

In addition, the EC3 tool is revolutionizing the EPD process. It is the first tool to create a digital EPD form and to translate all EPDs into that form for viewing and analyzing the data. Prior to the introduction of this free, open-access EPD database and visualization features, users were hampered with PDF-based EPDs.

 Users can now easily estimate upfront embodied carbon emissions associated with material production and construction processes. By enabling simple visualization of a project’s potential and realized embodied carbon impacts, along with the ability to see baselines and set reduction targets, users can accelerate the industry’s efforts to address the problem of embodied carbon on a global scale.  

EC3 Tool Highlights

EC3 Tool Launch at Greenbuild, November 19-22, 2019

The EC3 tool’s features will be revealed across multiple Greenbuild sessions at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA. Visitors to the Expo will find information on the EC3 tool at these booth locations. Locations of booth demos noted.

Attendees of the Greenbuild conference can learn more at the educational sessions listed at:

http://www.carbonleadershipforum.org/news-and-events/greenbuild/ 

EC3 Tool Lead Collaborators

Skanska USA and C Change Labs conceived of the solution, and initial development was jointly funded by Skanska and Microsoft, who determined that an open platform would provide maximum impact for the industry and society at large. To accelerate development of this solution, the Carbon Leadership Forum incubated the project with strong leadership and additional financial support from Autodesk, Interface, the MKA Foundation and the Charles Pankow Foundation, lead sponsor and grant manager. 

Additional EC3 Tool Partners

Pilot Partners: Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., BASF Corporation, Magnusson Klemencic Associates, Microsoft Corporation, Perkins and Will, Port of Seattle, Skanska USA, Tally, Walter P Moore and Associates, Inc., and Webcor; Association Partners: American Concrete Institute (ACI) Foundation, American Institute of Architects (AIA), American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) and the BlueGreen Alliance; Material Partners: Armstrong Ceiling and Wall Solutions, BASF Corporation, CarbonCure Technologies, Interface, Inc., Kingspan Group, Nucor, and USG Corporation; Early Adopter Partners: Coughlin Porter Lundeen, Google, LeMessurier, Nucor, Owens Corning, PCS Structural Solutions, Salesforce, SCS Global Services, Thornton Tomasetti, TK1SC, USGBC-Los Angeles, WRNS Studio; Technology Partners: Autodesk, Climate Earth, mindful MATERIALS Library powered by Origin, Sustainable Minds and Tally; EC3 Tool Methodology Partners: Arup, Brightworks Sustainability, Central Concrete Supply Co., Inc., Climate Earth, Katerra, Kieran Timberlake, LeMessurier, LMN Architects, National Ready Mixed Concrete Co., Owens Corning, Thornton Tomasetti, Urban Fabrick, WAP Sustainability and WRNS Studio.

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