Event Description

As the urgency to address climate change continues to grow, designers have a responsibility to make smart design decisions to minimize their buildings' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Designing a carbon-smart building is two-fold: minimizing embodied carbon and zeroing out operational carbon. This course will look at the holistic carbon profile of the built environment and the cutting-edge tools, processes, and case studies that design teams can use to reduce emissions on their projects.

This course will take a holistic view of carbon drivers in the built environment, outlining key definitions and drivers and presenting a path towards carbon-neutral design. Through case studies, we'll explore holistic carbon on recent projects and areas where designers can have the most significant influence. This session will include both embodied carbon and operational carbon. PG&E will talk about leveraging whole building life cycle assessment to achieve meaningful embodied carbon reductions, as well as methodologies to more accurately predict operational greenhouse gas emissions to take projects beyond net zero energy.

Learning Objectives:

• Communicate the importance of reducing building emissions on their projects
• Develop awareness of local and national codes and regulations related to building emissions
• Explain the difference between several zero-carbon definitions, certifications, and metrics
• Understand the necessity of using hourly GHG emissions data rather than a single annual value in predicting GHG emissions and reductions
• Incorporate the presented methodologies and processes to reduce embodied and operational carbon emissions into design work and/or energy analysis

Image - Built Building Labs