By Laura Hagan

Decarbonizing your K-12 school, or higher education campus isn’t only about reduced energy use and electrification. It’s also about reducing or offsetting embodied carbon — the greenhouse gas emissions from the building’s entire life cycle, including manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and eventual disposal or reuse of structural and architectural materials.

California has adopted new building codes to limit embodied carbon emissions in large buildings and school buildings, effective July 1, 2024, and others may follow.

Below are several strategies you can use to reduce the project’s embodied carbon. To achieve the best results, it’s important to prioritize embodied carbon reduction early in the design of a new building.

A structural engineer can conduct a Whole Building Life Cycle Analysis (WBLCA) to supply data on the embodied carbon of the building materials used in building construction. This helps clients understand and compare the potential embodied carbon of the structural design options.

A structural-focused embodied carbon study is a powerful complement to a WBLCA or as a standalone calculation. This supplies crucial data and insight on the materials and applications being considered before the project reaches initial milestones.

Civil engineering strategies—both in material selection and sequestration opportunities—also should be considered as part of a holistic decarbonization plan. For example, HDPE piping (pictured above) has 52% less embodied carbon than either concrete or steel piping, and 36% less embodied carbon than PVC piping.

Sequestration strategies, while they don’t lower a building’s embodied carbon, can serve as an offset of sorts to a building’s carbon footprint by removing carbon from the atmosphere and putting it back into the ground. Examples include green roofs, bioretention facilities (which also help with stormwater management), and the incorporation of new landscaping (trees and shrubs).

Long-term capital projects and infrastructure upgrades also should be reviewed for energy efficiency and embodied carbon reduction strategies. For example, optimizing framing layouts and using biophilic and recycled materials in new construction and renovations can reduce a building’s embodied carbon.

To learn more, read IMEG’s executive guide, “Decarbonization in Education: A Practical Approach for the Built Environment.”

Or read the other blogs in this series: