Embodied Carbon Basics - Tools and Strategies  

While reducing the operational carbon impacts of structures is important, focus has turned to the impacts of material choices and construction itself – the embodied carbon of a building from extraction, processing, and assembly of materials. This is especially important given progress towards lower carbon intensity of our grid-supplied electricity. An all-electric, grid-harmonized building will have low operational carbon emissions, thus increasing the need to focus on embodied carbon.

The AIA 2030 Commitment’s Design Data Exchange (DDx) added reporting of embodied carbon in 2020. In this session, David Arkin, AIA outlines the basics of embodied carbon, discusses materials that have low embodied carbon or store carbon, and introduces a range of tools for measuring your project’s kilograms of CO₂ emitted per meter squared. Examples of carbon storing materials and the range of tools available for measuring embodied carbon will be shared.

Photo courtesy of Arkins Tilt Architects

David Arkin, AIA, serves on the AIA 2030 Commitment Working Group and is co-Chair of the Renewable Materials Task Force of the Carbon Leadership Forum's Embodied Carbon Network. He is a founding member and current co-Director of the California Straw Building Association (CASBA), and has taught and lectured on the subject of sustainable design for over twenty-five years. David and his wife Anni Tilt, AIA are Principals of Arkin Tilt Architects, an award-winning firm specializing in energy and resource efficient design.