Over the summer of 2021, Metropolis magazine convened a diverse group of architects, interior designers, end-users, material and furnishing manufacturers, and industry non-profit representatives to tackle the growing concerns over embodied carbon in the interior environment. While much focus has (rightfully) been placed on reduction of operational carbon as an active approach to curbing global warming, attention is growing for carbon the manufacturing of materials generates and what each product that is installed represents.
Embodied carbon is just that – the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere from the total life cycle of a product, material, or system. A material’s embodied carbon includes processes related to extraction, manufacture, transportation, installation, and deconstruction and disposal (or recycling or reuse). The amount of embodied carbon in a specific product is reported in an Environmental Production Declaration (EPD), which is documentation a manufacturer voluntarily provides to document the impact of a specific item on the greater environment. Currently there is no mandate for manufacturers to provide the data, though third party certifications like LEED are starting to encourage the specification of products that provide for heightened transparency.
The Carbon Leadership Forum and other groups have provided leadership in embodied carbon reduction goals, but the work often focuses on the building structure and envelope. While the interior partitions, finishes, and furnishing typically only account for 11% of a building’s embodied carbon when constructed, the reality is in commercial spaces these interior spaces are refreshed with every lease renewal or tenant turnover. The aggregate embodied carbon impact of commercial interiors on a typical commercial office building will exceed the building shell’s embodied carbon and potentially the building’s operational carbon over its lifetime.
The convened professionals were divided into five working groups, and each met multiple times over the summer to work through the challenges of accounting for embodied carbon in commercial interiors and aggregate tools, strategies, and resources to assist designers in making more informed choices. After compilation and a full review by the entire group, the Metropolis Climate Toolkit was launched in September 2021. The free, online resource is a clearing house for resources, and offers a series of approachable definitions and talking points to help educate the design profession. In addition to design resources, the Toolkit offers discussion about the business case for lowering embodied carbon and how the topic may be resonant with different client groups. It also creates a “wish list” of opportunities for research and development in the future (someday perhaps there will be a combined HPD and EPD, for example, to streamline product transparency and documentation).
The goal from the Metropolis editorial staff is to grow the modules over time, adding and updating information to maintain a relevant resource for all. The Toolkit serves as a solid primer for those new to the topic of embodied carbon as well as a bookmarkable clearinghouse for online sources of data, interactive tools, and case studies.
Jon Penndorf, FAIA, is a Senior Associate in the Washington DC office of Perkins&Will. He participated in the working groups that led to the Toolkit.