New Report Explores Taking Action on Embodied Carbon in Buildings

The U.S. Green Building Council and RMI released the report “Driving Action on Embodied Carbon in Buildings” to answer questions about embodied carbon emissions and outline key actions to accelerate decarbonization of the U.S. building construction sector.

The two organizations draw from a comprehensive foundation of research based on the most up-to-date and relevant data and industry knowledge to establish a set of recommendations and actions for embodied carbon, including:

• The opportunity to reduce embodied carbon from standard building practices
• Current and emerging benchmarking standards
• The carbon intensity of specific materials
• Embodied carbon savings potential from reuse, recycling and circularity
• Assessments of emerging and future low-embodied carbon technologies

USGBC and RMI’s work will be used to inform the regular development process for LEED v5, the next version of USGBC’s LEED rating system.

As this critical area of high-performance building design comes into focus for more architects, designers and builders, the collaboration between USGBC and RMI will guide best practices in low-embodied carbon solutions while fostering rapid uptake and better decision-making informed by the latest research.