Learn about the embodied carbon impact of interior products.
This course focuses on the impact of interior product selection on embodied carbon work with an overview of some specific product types that are typical to the interior scope. It includes an introduction to resources for interior product information—including embodied carbon impacts as well as materials health. The course also looks at strategies for lower-carbon interiors, including salvage and reuse, research, and goal-setting.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Managing embodied carbon impacts? Don’t overlook your project’s MEPs.
Though mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems feature heavily in conversations about operational energy, they are an often-overlooked element in the embodied carbon conversation. Learn how MEP contributes to a project’s overall embodied carbon, including the impacts of systems of different scales and complexity, as well as the effects of MEP replacement cycles.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Just how much-embodied carbon is your project’s structure accountable for? And what can be done to reduce the impacts?
Structure accounts for a significant portion of a project’s embodied carbon. In this course, a panel of structural engineers and researchers discusses the positives and negatives, with regard to embodied carbon, of using concrete, steel, and timber each as primary structural materials. Panelists share ways to reduce and measure the embodied carbon impacts of each structure material–-through material makeup and specification, material reduction, material sourcing, and reuse.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Design your next façade system using embodied carbon strategies.
Envelopes are among the systems that have the largest embodied carbon impact on a building. Traditionally envelope systems and materials are chosen for aesthetics, cost, and operational energy, but embodied carbon is equally important. Learn how to apply embodied carbon strategies when designing your next façade system, including strategies for renovating existing buildings, insulation, and selecting cladding materials.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Learn about using EPDs to reduce the embodied carbon impacts of a project.
Learn what environmental product declarations (EPDs) are—plus how to write them, how to read them, and how to they can be integrated into your work to reduce the embodied carbon impacts of a project. Get familiar with the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, including its applications and the limitations posed by available EPDs. Learn what it takes to create an EPD—whether you’re a manufacturer or an advocate—and learn what to focus on when you’re deciphering EPDs that others have written. Get introduced to the concept of biogenic carbon and how biogenic carbon in EPDs can help you to select carbon-smart materials.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Build and refine your literacy in embodied carbon.
This course features an expert panel of AEC practitioners and researchers who define the embodied carbon issue and key terms and concepts—including health and sustainability implications. They provide information on data resources and rating systems available to support and execute embodied carbon decisions during design, specification, and construction. The panel also discusses how information on the embodied carbon and environmental impacts of building materials and products can be incorporated into design decisions and influence project outcomes. They use case studies to illustrate different life cycle assessment (LCA) types, structural systems, and implementation of embodied carbon design decisions through construction.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Are you a “carbon counter” in your firm? Holistically measuring the embodied carbon or CO2-equivalent emissions associated with a building’s materials is tricky — and vital to evaluating the highest-impact, most cost-effective solutions to reducing embodied carbon on projects. AIA Virginia’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) is looking for folks who are interested in sharing best practices, resources, suppliers, and tools.
The building sector is the single largest consumer of energy and producer of greenhouse gas emissions. The 2030 Challenge, adopted by the AIA, provides a path to reducing our sector’s negative impacts and reaching carbon neutral design as the standard practice. This series will inspire architects to meet the 2030 Challenge through design strategies, efficient technologies and systems, and applying renewable energy resources.
The design process is an important element in the creation of next-generation buildings that meet the 2030 Challenge targets. Explore the design processes to produce high-performance and carbon neutral buildings, including the Integrative Design Process (IDP). Then, hear collaborative strategies that can achieve low energy outcomes, and how these strategies can be used as a roadmap throughout the design process. In particular, we will examine defining core, early design decisions such as building form and orientation.
After that, join an interactive discussion about what can often be the biggest challenge making the business case for climate responsive design with your clients.
Looking for a way to really move the needle on green materials? Check out the Materials Pledge, an initiative being driven by A&E professionals to support human health, social health + equity, ecosystem health, climate health and a circular economy. AIA National has set up a great series of resources that explain how materials affect our lives through these lenses. Other resources include the AIA white paper Materials Transparency: Exploring Opportunities and Risks, and the Healthier Materials Protocol, which provides clear, practical methods and tools for setting healthier material goal and criteria definitions, product selection, tracking and specification, no matter the size and scope of the project. There are even helpful case studies. So what are you waiting for?
Want to integrate renewable energy into your next project but don’t know where to start? The Architect’s Primer on Renewable Energy, published Spring 2021, has just what you’re looking for. Whether it’s a clear summary of the benefits of renewable energy, an overview of different renewable technologies, an analysis of potential applications and storage options, or a summary of options for financing, this primer has you covered. Resources include guidance for choosing the right solution for your specific project and what to do when on-site renewable energy isn’t an option. The Architect’s Primer on Renewable Energy will help you see just how easy and affordable it is to make your project renewably powered.
Our recently formed Virginia Committee on the Environment (COTE) Chapter is here to help get the word out on sustainability-focused initiatives that you can get involved in as well as on resources that you can use to make your work better. Keep checking back here each month for more tidbits.
Interested in getting involved? Email Rhea George for an invitation to our next meeting.
