Thwarting climate change, brick by brick

• Date: 01 March 2022

52 ELR 10182 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 3-2022

COMMENT

Humanity’s failure to confront the built environ-

ment’s carbon emissions is not for lack of trying.

During the last 20 years, scientists, engineers,

architects, and designers have focused their attention on

sustainable design as a means of energy conservation, and

thereby the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

to thwart the progression of climate change. More than

200,000 professionals have been trained and qualied by

the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energ y

and Environmental Design (LEED®), and over 1.5 mil-

lionresidential units and 100,000commercial and govern-

ment projects have been registered or certied worldwide.

e U.K. BREEAM® has registered or certied 2.5+ mil-

lion buildings in 70 countries. Yet even with such training

and certication oversight, more than 40%1 of energy-

related global carbon emissions still originate from the

materials, construction, and operation of buildings.

ough well intended, many of these sustainable

design eorts were inappropriate, or misapplied applica-

tions of go-to antidotes under the broad umbrellas of “sus-

tainability” and “green.” Many resulted from oversights,

unobserved footnote, or ne print qualiers to the data

and statistical conclusions. Many failed to focus on the

most pressing need—to reduce carbon emissions now, not

gradually over the next 10 to 15 years. Why, because the

1. I E A (IEA), G S R  B-

  C: T  Z-E, E, 

R B  C S 2018 (2018) [hereinafter

G S R 2018].

cumulative gains derived from operating eciencies and

zero-carbon energy over the next decade might be too

insucient to be eective soon enough. Yes, incremental

eciency gains in energ y use are absolutely necessar y, and

incremental gains in the implementation of low-carbon

and zero-carbon energy sources are essential. And yes,

we must continue to safeguard our air, water, food chain,

and environmental quality. Nonetheless, we must focus

our attention and resources to the immediate reduction

of GHG emissions in order to buy time for cumulative

operating gains and a dominance of zero-carbon energy

to take hold.

e thrust of this Article, and my book, is to target

the engine that drives this failure, “embodied” emis-

sions—the carbon footprint attributable to the design

of our built environment and the physical nature of our

dwellings and infrastructure—their layout schema and

materials. With all the exposure, training, and certica-

tion, the formulation of these catalytic elements is still

taken for granted, is still a matter-of-fact; yet their very

composition generates much of our environmental poi-

son, determining what is emitted before a new structure

is occupied. ink of embodied emissions as a mush-

room cloud of GHGs released during fabrication and

construction, forever reecting back the earth’s heat.

Accordingly, the eciencie s achievable throug h physical

design are paramount.

Building materials a lone contribute 28% of all building-

related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Just a single com-

ponent of the embodied carbon, yet they generate 11% of

THWARTING CLIMATE CHANGE,

BRICK BY BRICK

by Bill Caplan

Bill Caplan holds a Master of Architecture from Pratt Institute's Graduate School of Architecture &

Urban Design, and a Materials Engineering degree from Cornell University. In 2010, he established

ShortList_0 Design Group LLC, working to reduce the built environment's impact on climate change.

SUMMARY

While climate policy typically focuses on future decarbonization 10 to 20 years out, temperatures continue

to rise. Greenhouse gases emitted upfront from the materials fabrication, construction, and renovation of

our physical environment—embodied emissions—accelerate the rate of global warming now. They increase

atmospheric carbon before our buildings and infrastructure are even used. While these emissions are often

ignored or deemed too perplexing to resolve, this Article, excerpted from Thwart Climate Change Now:

Reducing Embodied Carbon Brick by Brick (ELI Press 2021), addresses the need to reduce them immediately.

Copyright © 2022 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, http://www.eli.org, 1-800-433-5120.