Sustainability – Embodied Carbon
What is embodied carbon, and why should you care about it? Lisa Conway is a leading figure in developing a new sustainability concept to many of us. She explains why understanding embodied carbon is critically important in understanding the big picture of carbon impact and what you should consider each time you purchase an item.
Introduction
Lisa Conway, Co-Founder of materialsCAN initiative, explains this collaboration of eight building industry partners as well as its mission.
The Impact of Climate Change
Learn some relatable examples of how climate change impacts human health.
Project Carbon Footprint
Using an iceberg as an example, Lisa clarifies the differences between Emissions from Building Operations and Specified Emissions.
Embodied Carbon & Operational Carbon
Understand how sustainability is more than just operational energy – it’s also about considering the supply chain.
The materialsCAN Mission
Lisa discusses the mission of materialsCAN, including driving embodied carbon awareness.
How to Evaluate Embodied Carbon
Discover one way to measure embodied carbon – a “lifecycle analysis” of sorts.
With Interface’s carpet tile as an example, Lisa shows how carbon footprint comparisons can be done to measure how much carbon is stored in a material.
Learn why it’s so important to pay attention to what you buy and what the carbon footprint is for those items with this very visual example of a case study.
In the building industry, LEED is a certification system where credits are earned for a project – simply just for measuring embodied carbon!
Lisa highlights the EC3 tool, developed by Microsoft and SKANSKA for decision-making when it comes to building materials.
Meet the declare label, a list of ingredients used by the building industry to assess products.
Closing
Get a couple of recommendations for further information on embodied carbon, and Lisa leaves you with some parting thoughts about considering the carbon footprint of an item with each purchase.