(G05) Beyond Skin and Bones - The Beating Heart of Whole Life Carbon in Buildings

Over the past several years as the operational carbon associated with buildings continue to drop through efficiency in envelopes, improvements in systems, and decarbonization of power grids there has been an acknowledgement of the significant impact that embodied carbon of a building. This focus has largely been centered around building structure and façade, as these represent the largest day one impact on building embodied carbon. As understanding of the significance of building carbon increases it is becoming critical that we look at buildings from a whole lifecycle carbon standpoint. For this reason understanding the cyclical nature of building operation, maintenance, and turn from a carbon/greenhouse gas (eCo2) standpoint is critical to truly understand equitable, sustainable, and regenerative building. This session will explore cost vs CO2e savings as the correct metric to use to analyze envelope, right sizing insulation for a lower 60 year embodied carbon, insulation types, and triple pane windows. The session will review a series of analysis performed to help understand these issues.  We will explore the challenges that exist in MEP design if you begin to consider a building from a whole life cycle perspective. How teams can find “sweet spot” in electrification will be evaluated. We will discuss a case study and explore the importance of considering both operational greenhouse gas emissions and embodied carbon in building systems. Finally, we will discuss the importance of interior materials in a building. We will navigate the complexity of carbon measurement for their projects, encouraging designers need to think differently break the “fast fashion” cycle of interior materials and reduce embodied carbon. Embodied carbon is not just a day one decision and consideration of its impacts should include the whole building life, and not just skin and bones.