The Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) notes in a new report that “the solutions for addressing embodied carbon in buildings have not been widely studied in the United States, leaving a significant knowledge gap for engineers, architects, contractors, policymakers, and building owners.” This is one of many understatements in the report, which is titled “Reducing Embodied Carbon in Buildings.” Embodied carbon is pretty much ignored in North America; it is the blindspot of the building industry. This report may help change that.

“Embodied carbon” is the terrible name for the carbon emissions that I have described as “the CO2 emitted during the construction of a building, the carbon burp that comes from making the materials that go into a building, transporting them, and assembling them.” A few years ago I suggested that they should be renamed “Upfront Carbon Emissions” because they are not embodied; they are in the atmosphere and they matter now when every gram of carbon counts against the carbon budget. The term has been accepted in the UK (where much of the work on Embodied Carbon is being done) and is used for all the emissions in the product stage and the construction process stage—everything up to the point where the building starts to be used.

The report demonstrates that it is surprisingly straightforward and affordable to reduce the embodied carbon of concrete construction by optimizing the concrete mix and using recycled content in reinforcing bars. It actually claims that “concrete and steel offer most significant opportunities for reduction” and that we can “reduce embodied carbon by 24% to 46% at less than 1% cost premium.”

Keep reading on TreeHugger.com

Check out more news below: