Toward Greener Construction: UW Professor Leads Group Setting Benchmarks for Carbon Across Life of Buildings
University of WashingtonThe University of Washington-based Carbon Leadership Forum has published the results of its first benchmark study of embodied carbon, or the carbon emissions that occur when extracting, manufacturing and installing building materials. "In the design phrase, our data enables architects and engineers to use carbon, and other environmental impacts, as a performance criteria in addition to common criteria such as cost and strength, when specifying and selecting concrete," said the UW's Kate Simonen -- architect, structural engineer and UW associate professor of architecture, who leads the carbon forum.