With operating energy reductions now incentivized by Passive House Canada and zero-carbon building programs, alongside incremental improvements mandated in legislation such as theBC Energy Step Code, increased attention is being given to the embodied carbon in buildings. In this regard, mass timber products and systems offer reduced carbon impacts, shorter construction times, and enhanced building performance.
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A team of students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) have built a near-zero embodied carbon building on campus using hempcrete, wood, and steel as primary materials.
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Recent efforts in North America to reduce embodied carbon in concrete are similar to British solutions to eradicate cobras in colonial India. Simple solutions often create bigger problems than the complex ones they were trying to solve.
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The visionary concept of a carbon-absorbing building may soon be a buildable reality, based on a reductive approach to construction—rather than the typical additive one, which builds a structure first and adds to it—, plus materials that sap carbon from the surroundings, and low embodied carbon materials to regenerate carbon-dense environments.
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During this presentation, we will explore the green design and construction principles behind high-performance buildings, more specifically the different product green certificates and how they connect with the various green building certification systems. This will lead us into a deeper dive of LEED certification.
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For public projects, as for other types of buildings, new engineered mass timber products, supported by recent legislation, make wood an economic and functional choice in both rural and urban areas. Two recent B.C. projects illustrate this point.
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International engineering firm Walter P Moore has released a stewardship report entitled Embodied Carbon, A Clearer View of Carbon Emissions. The report focuses on an issue of relevance for all material specifiers, which is the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
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Growing awareness of the role buildings and infrastructure plays in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions profile is driving important discussions about low-carbon design and materials, as well as the role of various construction industry actors in reducing emissions from the built environment.
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When the topic of buildings and carbon emissions come up, most people think of climate control, minimizing power usage, and sourcing renewable electricity—all of these are important ways to do better by the environment. Operations are the major source of sustained, long-term emissions, and the primary focus of Canada’s Climate Action Plan as it relates to the commercial building sector. However, there is an opportunity to improve the environmental impact of buildings from the ground up.
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The carbon footprint of the design and construction industry reaches far beyond the boundaries of a single building or site. Due to various processes, ranging from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing and installation of the construction materials, the impact of a single project includes both embodied carbon within the built environment and operational carbon generated throughout the life cycle of the structure. Embodied carbon is defined as the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted during the full life cycle of a product from extraction (cradle) to the use and disposal phases (grave).
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