Whole Life Carbon Assessment – Steps & Tools

Buildings generate over 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contributing to climate change.  Multiple simultaneous forces (severe weather, natural disaster impacts, regulations, financial risk reporting, government incentives, public perception, cheap renewable energy) are exerting intense pressure on construction to address our outsized climate impact.  Here and globally, our industry needs to adopt a more proactive and data-driven course.

To meet published Net Zero Carbon (NZC) targets and avoid worst-case scenarios defined by Paris Accords (2015), we must aggressively measure and address the full extent of a building’s global warming potential (GWP) – known as its carbon footprint. For 30 years the industry and regulators focused on energy use, production, and conservation. We’ve made enormous progress toward better and more sustainable buildings through energy codes, energy usage monitoring/measuring, SMART controls, and more thermally cooperative materials.

Regrettably, this is not enough even as we continue to improve the grid. We cannot “offset” our way out of it or reduce our energy use and production nearly enough to meet required carbon reduction challenges. We must aggressively eliminate emissions at the source, by stopping emissions from happening in the first place. To do so, we must make decarbonizing the built environment, just the new normal way we work.

We all have a part to play, not just Owners and Operators. Everyone in design, engineering, construction, and building maintenance must contribute. Reducing carbon emitted by construction, and reducing GHG emissions during operation is the only way to meet the challenge.

However, we cannot manage, nor change and improve, that which we do not measure. So, the industry must reset by measuring ALL the GHG emissions from the built environment, also known as whole life carbon.   

This webinar will drill down on the following:

• Where are the major carbon impacts in construction?
• Why does this matter, and especially right now?
• What is Whole Life Carbon (WLC) & Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA)
• Why focus on the embodied carbon impacts in construction?
• How to do a carbon assessment and what gets measured?
• What tools can you use to do an assessment?

INSTRUCTOR: 

As Director of Sustainability – Americas, Mark Wartenberg is developing sustainability services with a focus on helping clients de-carbonize both construction projects and existing buildings.  WLCM helps clients balance all project constraints (scope, schedule, budget, risk) while integrating carbon as a constraint.  Analyzing the carbon impact of build programs, while also considering cost and schedule impacts, helps owners make informed decisions across their portfolios.

Register a team of 3 or more from your organization and save $15 each!