Embodied Carbon Building Code

Guideline / July 11, 2024 / Codes And Policy

NBI has created two embodied carbon code overlays, one for the commercial code and one for the residential code.

These overlays introduce prescriptive embodied carbon code amendments for both the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Residential Code (IRC) for a range of products, encompassing widely used and high carbon-emitting building materials. The overlays have been created for policymakers seeking code language to address greenhouse gas emissions in new construction or major renovations for both commercial and residential buildings.

This product-focused prescriptive approach sets global warming potential (GWP) limits for products and requires verification through environmental product declarations (EPDs). The report explains how the amendments can be modified to suit jurisdictional goals. Policymakers can choose to adopt a handful of products, alter the requirements to report EPDs, or set different GWP limits based on the GWP table within each overlay document. The amendments are presented per product category, based on the code and code chapter in which the product category is regulated. We have provided two comprehensive PDF documents, one focused on commercial construction, and one on residential construction, via the download buttons below. You may also contact us to request the code provisions in a Word document.