US Government Focuses on Embodied Carbon to Reduce Emissions

Published by Guidehouse Insights: President Biden signed Executive Order 14057 in December 2021. Among the novel aspects of “Executive Order on Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability” is the establishment of a Buy Clean Task Force. This task force will recommend ways to reduce carbon emissions associated with the construction phases for federal buildings, an important new development to reducing carbon emissions.

The industry has already done a great deal of work on this topic. New Buildings Institute has done some work to help modify building codes that consider embodied carbon in its report, Lifecycle GHG Impact in Building Codes. The organization Building Transparency has a software tool, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator, that helps builders evaluate embodied carbon options for many common building materials and compare them against a baseline for each product category.