Embodied Carbon, Building Data, and Collaboration: The Key Themes of Greenbuild 2023

The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Greenbuild International Conference and Expo is the world's largest event for green building professionals. This year's conference focused on three key themes — embodied carbon, building data, and collaboration — to accelerate progress on sustainable buildings.

Embodied carbon

The embodied carbon of building materials accounts for about 11 percent of global carbon emissions. Concrete and steel are the two primary sources of embodied carbon emissions, thus mass timber — its low-carbon counterpart — had the spotlight at Greenbuild.

The growing focus on embodied carbon is forcing building materials manufacturers to confront their own contributions to climate change and engage in solutions to reduce their emissions.

Lona Rerick, a principal at ZGF Architects, indicated that the industry needs to develop a common language and interoperable frameworks to discuss and reduce embodied carbon at scale. To achieve this, the industry must recognize the diversity of stakeholders involved and improve access to tools that help architects and developers make concerted decisions about embodied carbon when designing buildings.

Building data

Building data is used to track the performance of green buildings and is often used to identify areas where buildings can be improved to make better decisions about future projects.

Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) created a building data management tool called ARC Skoru which tracks over 30,000 LEED projects and encourages teams to measure the actual performance of those buildings on an ongoing basis.

New services and technologies that make sense of operational metrics are emerging alongside the many hardware and software tools that exist to collect that data. For example, Attune, a real-time data management service, is developing software that serves as an interface for facilities managers to make data-based decisions about their buildings.  

Collaboration

Collaboration is essential for accelerating progress on sustainable buildings. Green building professionals are working together to share knowledge, develop new technologies, and advocate for policies that support green buildings. Throughout Greenbuild, themes of collaboration and partnership were consistent amongst industry leaders, building professionals, and corporations.

For example, Armstrong, a manufacturer of commercial ceiling tiles, has adopted a new corporate focus: "Experience Above All" meaning Armstrong is invested in not only their products, but in the spaces they help create. Take, for example, ceiling tiles — they play an important role in defining the interior space of a building, as well as routing utilities such as air conditioning ducts, lighting, and sprinkler systems.

What is perhaps the most important about Armstrong's approach is its open innovation approach to design, such as partnering with Irving Tissue to reuse their paper waste to manufacture ceiling tiles. This is exactly the model that companies need to engage in to accelerate progress on sustainable buildings.