September Chapter Meeting Dinner Presentation (In-Person)

Dinner Presentation

The New Carbon Standards: Towards Net Zero Operational, Embodied, Upfront and Whole Life Carbon

While the past focus on energy and carbon is more about operational, the new focus will be on Whole Life Carbon. For the past 20+ years, the MEP industry was focused on operational energy reductions. Through strategies related to energy efficiency, utility source selection, and integration of renewable energy, great progress was made to reduce operational carbon. Our focus is now moving to the embodied and Whole Life Carbon associated with the materials and systems found in the built environment. Embodied carbon looks at the carbon impacts associated with extracting, manufacturing, and transporting materials to the jobsite, in addition to manufacturing and transportation, including impacts related to in-use and end of life. While life cycle analysis (LCA) accounts for impacts over the full lifecycle of a material, which includes embodied and operating carbon, or, cradle to grave. Also, more focus is on Upfront Carbon, or, cradle to gate to understand the carbon impact of different materials.

This will greatly impact our work tomorrow. This discussion will include different methodologies in the counting of carbon, examples of different carbon calculations, and ways to reduce carbon emissions holistically. With the new administration goal of 1.5C net zero economies by 2050, and 2035 all-renewable electricity grid, we need to accelerate holistic carbon effort to an all-electric, and net zero future.