In the second episode of our series on sustainability strategies of the future, IMEG’s Adam McMillen discusses embodied carbon in chillers, boilers, and other MEP equipment. “Naturally, engineers put a lot of equipment into buildings,” he says. “That equipment contains a lot of steel and comes from all over the world, so it obviously has a carbon footprint.” Quantifying that footprint is critical. “It’s starting to become clear that the amount of carbon a company has on its books is going to be a liability in the future, from a climate change perspective, a dollar perspective, and a regulations perspective. We need to get all this quantified so that companies can clearly see these big numbers as a risk to their business and demand lower levels from manufacturers.” Reversing the “throw-away” mentality also is crucial and includes designing buildings for a much longer life. “Let’s not think about constructing a 50-year building — let’s think about a 100-year building,” McMillen says. “And let’s think about 30-year MEP equipment.”

Also in this series:

• “Embodied Carbon in the Crosshairs of Desginers, Bill Gates, and Girl Scouts”
• “Cold Climate Electrification: A Path Toward ‘Clean’ Heating”
• “Call in the Reserves: Thermal Energy Storage to the Rescue”
• “Battery Storage: Clean Energy for a Rainy Day — and Peak Demand Relief”
• “Five Steps to Begin the Process of Decarbonizing Your Building”