6 ProjectSight White Paper
5 Pivotal Steps to Reduce Embodied Carbon on Your Next Building Project
2. Establishing a Baseline
Once construction professionals understand the scope of
their project's emissions using tools such as the LCA, they
can establish a baseline, identify reduction targets, and
ultimately chart a path to net-zero. To ensure transparency
and accountability, their contributions and reduction targets
should be made available to the public. For inspiration when
setting goals, construction leaders may look to a number of
organizations that have created tools and certifications based
on CO2 emissions and other sustainability goals.
3. Adopting Best Practices
Once reduction targets are established, construction companies
will need to take actionable steps toward achieving them. For
contractors, that will mean disclosing supply chain data—a
challenging feat in the recent past, but connected sensors
and asset tracking systems are making it simpler to chart the
path of incoming materials and aggregate data in a central
place for easy access. Contractors will also need to begin
choosing materials with the lowest possible embodied carbon
impacts. To do this, they can look for certifications and consider
Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) from material
manufacturers during the selection process.
• The Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC)
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• Responsible Steel
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• The 2018 International Green
Construction Code (IgCC)
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• Reusing existing buildings whenever possible (renovation
and reuse create at least 60 percent less
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carbon emissions
than new construction)
• Choosing to insulate with organic materials that
sequester carbon
• Using high-recycled content steel
A few examples include:
Other best practices for reducing overall embodied
carbon impacts include:
