New Strategies for Reducing the Carbon Dioxide Emissions of Building Materials
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represents a significant impact in the short term, it is critical to understand the effects of building materials and what is being done to mitigate their impact. The following image from the New Buildings Institute makes clear the part embodied carbon plays in the life cycle of a building, illustrating the range of embodied carbon impact.
As with energy efficiency, using an integrative design approach to reduce embodied carbon is most important. Ideally, this includes reusing existing structures and building materials whenever possible and minimizing the use of new materials. When using new materials, green developers should use technologies that reduce CO2 emissions, some of which even use CO2 as a component of their manufacturing
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n the next 30 years, if humans keep building as they have been, the embodied carbon of building materials will have an impact on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions similar to the operational carbon of buildings. Embodied carbon represents the emissions associated with construction materials—their extraction, manufacture, transportation to the site, construction, and end of life. Operational carbon, by contrast, represents the emissions associated with operating a building. Until recently, most of the green building movement’s focus has been on operational carbon, e.g., energy efficiency. Because embodied carbon
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By Helen J. Kessler
Published in Probate & Property, Volume 37, No 5 © 2023 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
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September/October 2023
