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By Jay Fox
Just in time for NYC Climate Week, the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), New Buildings Institute (NBI), American Institute of Architects New York (AIA NY), and RMI have published the Embodied Carbon State Policy Playbook. The Playbook was written to provide a clear vision for addressing embodied carbon, and it focuses on potentially transformative policies that can be enacted at the state level.
As noted in the Playbook, efficiency efforts, electrification, and grid decarbonization have all contributed to a decline in operational carbon and the use of fossil fuels. However, embodied carbon continues to be overlooked. Embodied carbon reflects the amount of carbon imbued within a product throughout its entire life (see illustration to the left). In states with strong building and energy codes, like California, embodied carbon represents 70% or more of total building-related emissions in the near term.
Understanding how much carbon is embodied within any particular material requires understanding how it is produced, maintained, and disposed of. Reducing embodied carbon requires making changes across these stages or substituting carbon-intensive materials with materials that have similar functionality but require fewer resources throughout their useful life. While this sounds challenging, the Playbook contends that the transition to a less carbon-intensive built environment will produce innovative new technologies, fueling domestic industry, skilled job creation, and prosperity.
The authors of the Playbook believe that states have an opportunity to drive this transition through policy and that early adopters will see significant rewards if they become regional hubs of the green economy. As they note, “local governments have jurisdiction over key building zoning and permitting regulations, and state departments of transportation (DOTs) build the majority of roadways and other transportation infrastructure.” States and localities also dictate the terms of procurement for major infrastructure projects and can have a tremendous influence on local supply chains.
The Playbook provides a collective vision and describes specific policies that can help states reduce embodied carbon, and the authors note that the policies and examples they cite all exist today, somewhere in the U.S. or abroad.
As the authors put it, “The task now is coordinated, ambitious adoption.”
Authors
Meghan Lewis, Carbon Leadership Forum
Aurora Jensen, Carbon Leadership Forum
Michelle Lambert, Carbon Leadership Forum
Jordan Palmeri, Carbon Leadership Forum
Mikhail Haramati, Natural Resources Defense Council
Dharma Santos-Santiago, Natural Resources Defense Council
Contributors
Aurimas Bukauskas, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)
Amie Lewis, Associate Director of Codes & Policy, New Buildings Institute (NBI)
Ariel Brenner, Project Manager, New Buildings Institute (NBI)
Bria Donohue, Government Affairs Director, American Institute of Architects New York
