mindful MATERIALS: Climate Health
Embodied carbon is an increasingly urgent consideration: massive emissions from manufacturing concrete, steel, foam, gypsum board, and other building products are happening right now. Some products save energy and carbon during building operation. Our resources help you minimize the use of the worst offenders and support climate health by preferring products that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester more carbon than emitted.
mindful MATERIALS: Climate Health
Deep Dives
Get up to speed on complex topics. You can also earn CEUs and download PDF Spotlight Reports.
-
Using Low-Carbon Concrete in Your Next Project
Feature
Advancements in low-carbon concrete materials and strategies have led to greater adoption in much of the U.S. Now it's time to start using them.
-
The Promise of Biobased Materials—and How to Use Them Now
Feature
There is a lot of hype about carbon storage and other benefits of natural materials, but their potential is real. Read about those that are ready for prime time—and the ones we hope will take off next.
-
The Urgency of Embodied Carbon and What You Can Do about It
Feature
Building materials emit massive amounts of carbon long before the lights go on. Here’s how thoughtful design can reduce global warming impact.
Quick Takes
Jump straight to the essentials with these short explanations of green building concepts.
- Check if your spelling is correct, or try removing filters.
- Remove quotes around phrases to match each word individually: "blue drop" will match less than blue drop.
- You can require or exclude terms using + and -: big +blue drop will require a match on blue while big blue -drop will exclude results that contain drop.
Product Guidance
Unbiased information from our product experts helps you separate green from greenwash.
-
BuildingGreen Announces Top 10 Products for 2021
Product Review
These innovative products reduce carbon emissions and include negative embodied carbon carpet, repurposed EV battery storage, carbon sequestering aggregate, and more.
-
Blue Planet: Cost-Effective Carbon Sequestration
Product Review
Blue Planet turns industrial CO2 into aggregate, cost-effectively sequestering carbon while producing a viable commodity.
-
High-Efficiency Commercial Window Inserts
Product Review
Alpen’s WinSert commercial window inserts significantly improve the thermal performance of aging window systems, without the cost or aesthetic concerns of full replacements.
-
Commercial Heat Pump Water Heaters Using CO2 Refrigerant
Product Review
Mitsubishi’s Heat2O commercial heat-pump water heater uses CO2 as a refrigerant and is now available in the U.S.
In The News
We break news down to the essentials and provide expert analysis.
-
California’s Embodied Carbon Code May Embolden Other States
News Analysis
CalGreen’s new embodied carbon requirement is unprecedented in the U.S. We analyze the code and what might come next for other states.
-
New Climate-Smart-Wood Guidance and a Call for Pilot Partners
News Analysis
As more project teams question timber’s “carbon neutrality,” a growing coalition blazes a common-sense but potentially perilous path forward.
-
Interior Products Can Have Enormous Carbon Footprint
News Brief
The structure and envelope have the most up-front embodied carbon, but replacement cycles may make interiors more important than previously thought.
-
A Growing Embodied Carbon Library
News Brief
The Carbon Leadership Forum has published a whole library on embodied carbon—and it’s crowdsourcing more resources every day
Perspective
Thought-provoking opinions from the most trusted minds in sustainability.
- Check if your spelling is correct, or try removing filters.
- Remove quotes around phrases to match each word individually: "blue drop" will match less than blue drop.
- You can require or exclude terms using + and -: big +blue drop will require a match on blue while big blue -drop will exclude results that contain drop.
Learning Resources
Syllabus supplements and CEU content, with automatic reporting for AIA and GBCI.
-
Let’s Get Real about Wood’s Carbon Footprint
Webcast
You’ve probably heard that wood products are carbon neutral. You might also have heard that timber harvesting causes immense carbon emissions. Which is it? Could it be both?
-
Wood: Is It Still Good? Part One: Embodied Carbon
Spotlight Report
-
Wood: Is It Still Good? Part Two: Moving from Carbon to Climate
Spotlight Report
-
Wood's Latest Move: from Carbon Neutral to Climate Smart
Webcast
If we’re going to start using a lot more wood in buildings, we need to think hard about where that wood is going to come from and how it will be harvested.
