Embodied Greenhouse Gas News

National whole-building life cycle assessment practitioner’s guide

The Breakthrough Agenda aims to make ‘near-zero emission and resilient buildings a new normal in all regions by 2030.

The Breakthrough Agenda aims to make ‘near-zero emission and resilient buildings a new normal in all regions by 2030.

The Pilot Version of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard

EPA’s draft program approach to develop a Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials.

A new model designed finds that adopting the right mix of sustainable construction practices could enable Canada to meet it housing goals without blowing past its climate commitments.

EPA News Release: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Nearly $160 Million in Grants to Support Clean U.S. Manufacturing of Steel and Other Construction Materials

Learn about Zero Emission Buildings (ZEBs) in Vancouver and Toronto, their application requirements, and how to measure emissions to achieve compliance.

Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) introduced the latest version of its Zero Carbon Building – Design Standard (ZCB-Design). Updates help minimize risk, future-proof assets, and attract investment.

An Analysis of Embodied and Operational Carbon Impacts of 30 Buildings

Learn the difference between operational and embodied carbon, and how to measure and reduce carbon across a building’s life cycle.

Nine policies in the Northeast U.S. and Canada are highlighted as successful in efforts to target embodied carbon reporting and reduction.

By 2025, the aim for all Nordic countries is to have mandatory life cycle GHG disclosures for buildings in place, leading up to the EPBD GHG disclosure introduced in 2028 and 2030.

According to the BCIS, the new database will allow the construction industry to assess whether they need to pay more for building materials with lower embodied carbon values.

Report warns that there are a “negligible number” of truly net zero buildings.

A new set of standards defines minimum sustainability criteria for high-volume materials used in architecture and interior projects.

From energy efficiency and Passivhaus to retrofits and carbon handprints, here are some sustainable design basics.

Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan, approved by City Council in November 2020, sets a goal of reducing embodied carbon in construction by 40% by 2030. In May 2022, City Council approved changes to the Vancouver Building By-law1 (VBBL) to require designers to calculate, limit, and later reduce, embodied carbon in new Part 3 buildings.

The City of Vancouver says Canada’s first “carbon-zero” fire hall will reduce operational emissions by 99.7 per cent compared to its predecessor, but there was still a significant amount of carbon emitted to construct the facility.

Just days after the earth’s hottest month in recorded history1, on August 2, 2023, California became the first state in the country to make Embodied Carbon Emission Control a mandatory part of the building code. This FAQ provides a brief overview of these requirements for architects and others who shape California’s built environment.

A project led by Climate Positive Energy Member Shoshanna Saxe and supported by CPE, has received $740,000 in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.

While discussions to reduce operational carbon emissions work their way through provincial and federal building code development processes, embodied carbon remains harder to pin down and ranks lower among regulatory targets.

M&S says ‘short-sighted act of self-sabotage’ leaves no choice but to review position on UK’s premier shopping street.

A small but growing number of countries have either implemented or are preparing to introduce changes to their building codes to limit carbon emissions.

U of T Engineering’s newest research centre will develop innovative ways to meet the urgent and growing need for infrastructure — without further exacerbating the climate crisis. The Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment brings together seven researchers from across U of T, as well as a dozen…

From January 1st 2023, the Danish building regulation now includes climate requirements for all new buildings in order to decrease the country’s CO2 emissions from the construction sector. This paves the way for even more knowledge sharing among the Nordic countries about low carbon emissions from construction.