July 2025 NGO/Government Roundtable on Embodied Carbon

Roundtable: NGO/Government Alignment
1

Andrew Himes – CLF

  • Welcome and introduction to NGO/Governmental Roundtable

    CLF’s Embodied Carbon NGO/Government Roundtable has the following objectives:

    • Share news, strategic plans, resources, and tools related to embodied carbon.

    • Report planning and future dates for conferences, webinars, and meetings.

    • Inspire and facilitate ongoing communication and conversation among key leaders related to embodied carbon.

    • Encourage convergence on shared embodied carbon terminology, data standards, benchmarks, and targets for embodied carbon reduction.

Brook Waldman and Rachelle Habchi - CLF Staff - 2025 CLF Material Baselines

  • 2025 North American Baselines Report was published last month

    • A set of CLF baseline GWP values: estimates of industry-average GHG emissions for construction materials – Primary uses: a basis of comparisons (LEED, policy, project specs, ect…)

    • State of EPD snapshot for North American construction products

    • A supporting methodology – the reader can both see what we did and how we did it, but also can use the methodology for other analyses

  • CLF baselines and their impact

    • Lots of new policies and building codes to provide the current state of the industry that are able to use these baselines (LCA tools, policy, rating systems)

  • What’s new in the 2025 Report?

    • 355 total material baselines with new and expanded product types and categories (compared to 259 in 2023). More industry engagement for the 2025 report, too - created a really great relationship between CLF and industry folks

  • Rachelle: material spotlights

    • Wood: Softwood lumber

    • Wood: Mass Timber

    • Wood: Plywood Panel and Dowel Laminated Timber

    • Ready mix concrete: high strength

Cecilia Wandiga - Center for Science and Innovation

  • Biochar pathway - mixing with concrete and not cement to see where they end up on ratios

    • Combining this as a research project, not just industry, but academia and the general public to share the importance and impact of this mareria

    • Initial test 20% biochar mix → results were flipped from literature, completing further testing

    • Next steps: biochar quality and relevant factors for testing biochar, developing equivalence for the existing International Biochar Initiative scale

  • LEED 4 City CDR Initiative

    • Looking for materials that accumulate in unregulated landfills

    • Sensitivity for those who are vegan, that there are options for alternative waste from slaughterhouse wastes

Nickson Otieno - NikoGreen, Nairobi, Kenya

  • NIKO GREEN’s Work - presented at the CLF July 2025 NGO-Government Roundtable.pdf (769.9 KB)

  • Email: nickson@nikogreen.com

  • UNFCC-accredited think tank

  • Ongoing policy advisory work

    • Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) position paper contracted by UNEP for Building and Construction to support the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development in reviewing Kenya’s NDC

      • Looking at commitments for building and construction decarbonization and raising ambitions for Kenya’s goals

    • Supporting the development of the Kenya Building Decarbonization Roadmap

    • Carbon Footprint Assessment of Kenya’s Health Sector and Development of Green Health Sector Guidelines (Dutch Ministry of Health)

      • Green public spaces in sea and land planning, installation of park infrastructure with low-carbon materials, and promoting nature-based solutions

Ash Lauth - Industrious Labs, Global Cement & Concrete Network

  • Senior Campaign Strategies - Decarbonizing heavy industrial sectors

  • New Global Cement and Concrete Network - inaugural call on Monday

  • State of cement and concrete: emissions in the global south are huge, concrete counts for 8% of global emissions, and a lot of that comes from emerging economies

    • Striking growth in carbon emissions and new cement facilities

  • Lack of advocacy is going on in the global south, and the voices are not heard or represented in the spaces where decisions are being made

  • Advocacy landscape:

    • Policy barriers

    • Global South representation

    • Just transition

    • Fragmented civil society efforts

    • Insufficient resourcing for decarbonization solutions

  • Key challenges

    • Environmental and health impacts of cement in the global south

    • Socioeconomic impacts - economic inequality and vulnerability, barriers to low-carbon solutions, and governance failures

  • Industrious Labs’ co-building and co-creating is aiming to transform the industrial sector by:

    • Building national networks, deepening analysis, harmonizing international and national cement decarbonization solutions, de-siloing key stakeholders, and creating room for diverse perspectives

  • Defining success:

    • Build the capacity of Global South actors to participate and make cement decarbonization a reality in their region

    • Execute sharp analysis and anchor decarbonization in global agendas

Bruce King - Ecological Building Network

Stephanie Dalo - Zero Emissions Innovation Centre, Vancouver

  • Embodied Carbon Awards - really successful event, range of award categories, winners represented lots of sectors in the built environment (development was one which they’ve been working to get more representation)

    • Case studies on their resource library to come!

  • Embodied Carbon Summit - Led by Canadian Green Building Council

    • Lots of industry representation, standardization and harmonization, WBLCA tool alignment, infrastructure and database development to facilitate collection and use of costing data for low carbon building and design, policy and national code, education and awareness, available solutions, roles and responsibilities of industry folks, alignment on political capital

  • CA Board for Harmonized Construction Code - seeking comments on national model codes

  • The Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes (CBHCC) is seeking input on a draft policy direction to address embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in new houses and buildings through future updates to the National Model Codes: https://cbhcc-cchcc.ca/en/phase-1-embodied-ghg-draft-policy-positions/
    CLF BC 2025 Embodied Carbon Award Winners: https://clfbritishcolumbia.com/awards-2025/
    CLF BC Resource Library: https://clfbritishcolumbia.com/resources/

Melanie DeCola - AIA, Climate Action Pledge Programs

  • Email: melaniedecola@aia.org

  • Sustainability Action and Materials Action Plan guidance

  • Include more guidance for small firms with fewer resources to support their reporting requirements

  • Guiding questions for the Materials Pledge’s Five Impact Categories aligned with mindfulMaterials Common Materials Framework

  • 2030 Commitment: 2024 at a glance - diving into their sustainability report and identifying areas of growth and opportunities

  • Embodied cabron projects in their reporting are growing

Tracy Huynh - RMI

  • RESNET 1550 Standard - first round of comment responses are in review by the Standard Development committee, and the second draft is expected this summer

  • Analysis for 1.5 Degree Targets co-authored with CLF coming out August 14, 2025

  • Expanding embodied carbon work globally – Benchmarking study of affordable homes in India receives first dataset (~November) - EPD 101 article in the works

  • Actions:

Joshua Clement - Global Energy Monitor, Global Cement and Concrete Tracker

Gordon Sharp - International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL)

  • president@i2sl.org

  • I2SL Embodied carbon benchmarking site: www.lbt.i2sl.org

  • The quick start guide can be accessed here: i2sl.org/embodied-carbon.

  • Focused on laboratories - Labs2Zero program

    • Benchmarking and scoring labs on energy, operational, and embodied carbon

  • I2SL Lab Building Embodied Carbon Goals

    • Lab buildings have special factors affecting embodied carbon content

    • Until now, no embodied carbon benchmarking or scoring for labs

    • Also, no definitive guides for reducing embodied carbon in labs

  • Laboratory Benchmarking Tool - world’s largest lab energy database

    • Energy, embodied carbon, LCA, structural information

    • A dedicated embodied carbon benchmarking page includes relevant ifileter sand metrics for comparisons of your lab building to anonymized peer buildings

    • Quick start guides to help get started on entering information into the tool

  • Embodied Carbon in Laboratories Best Practice Guides - hoping to develop something for next years

    • Define embodied carbon/emissions, explain why reducing emissions is important, and show how lab buildings can contribute to positive change

    • Survey how lab buildings differ from other buildings, and how their unique needs drive embodied carbon/emissions

    • Create a high-level road map for what ‘low carbon design’ looks like for lab buildings

    • Share lessons learned from others within the industry

  • Annual conference - Dallas, TX October 19 - 22

Henrique Goes - C40

  • C40 is a network of nearly 100 world-leading mayors collaborating to deliver the urgent action needed to confront the climate crisis

    • 97 cities, 7 regions, 20% of the global economy

    • Directly representing 582 million residents

    • Influencing 896 million people living and working in the wider city

  • How C40 works with cities - political and technical support

    • Leadership standards, global and regional expertise, research, resource sharing, knowledge networks, support the delivery of high-impact actions, ensure climate action is inclusive and fair, and build public and political support

    • Focusing on all aspects of cities that are related to climate change impacts – economies, public health, adaptation and resilience

  • Clean construction for C40: cities driving and demanding a resilient, resource-efficient, decarbonized, and just construction ecosystem that ensures all people enjoy thriving and healthy urban lives

    • Including, but not limited to, building use optimization, adaptive reuse, retrofits, low-carbon alternatives, better planning and design, resilient infrastructure, clean and safe construction sites

    • Cities that are part of the clean construction program

  • Recent Publications:

    • Achieving a Decarbonized and Climate-Resilient Built Environment

    • Building Greener Cities: Green Job Opportunities in Clean Construction

  • Workshops on green construction globally

Lyndsay Watkins - USGBC

Richard Grave - Center for Sustainable Building Research, University of Minnesota

  • Email: rmgraves@umn.edu

  • Facilitate Buy Clean for the state of Minnesota

  • In the process of working through their task force, representing a range of industry folks

  • Draft limit-setting process to the task force - emphasis on process, creating a code-like process for updating limits

    • Looking to close the state gap in the lack of data

  • Only state in the Buy Clean Program that is doing an integrated infrastructure and transportation

    • Using EC3 for buildings, working on the database being used for transportation

  • Buy Clean legislation

    • Mostly focused on big building projects and paving projects

    • Exploring expansion to all state-funded projects and WBLCA dataset

    • Expanding from paved projects to bridge and other infrastructure projects

Tom Tietz - California Nevada Cement Association

  • Expanding reach with NGOs and areas of convergence where voices can be combined for increased reach

    • Reauthorizing the cap and trade program in CA

    • Revising the definition of cement in CA in the cap and trade program

    • Credit allowed for carbon capture at cement plants

    • Holding imported cements to ean qual or equivalent cement intensity standard for carbon emissions

Aditi Agarwal - California Air Resources Board

  • Working on AB 2446 and AB 43

    • The State of CA requires a 40% reduction in the building sector by 2035

    • Requesting data from both the manufacturers and the buildings

    • Initial concepts were presented in a March workshop

      • Manufacturers either report their facility-specific data (energy and material flows) or provide facility-specific EPDs

      • Buildings report basic information and CARB will estimate the emissions or provide a WBLCA

  • CARB staff will be hosting Technical Meetings in September or October this year on the proposed Baseline Methodology and Reporting Requirements and Templates for both building material manufacturers and covered projects. The dates will be finalized with input from stakeholders. We encourage folks to attend and share their feedback.

  • Refer to staff presentations and recordings on our program’s website, Embodied Carbon - Meetings and Workshops

  • Subscribe to the Embodied Carbon Listserv for updates on future workshops

Max Puchtel - American Institute of Steel Construction

  • Brand new data shows an 11% reduction in embodied carbon of structural steel

  • The steel industry is committed to transparency and quality – ~99% coverage of facility-specific EPDs

  • Steel Construction Products PCR (v3) released in April 2025

  • aisc.org/epd – all facility-specific EPDs for structural steel products in the US are summarized, accurately interpreted, and consolidated for use and reference

  • Specification Strategies for Structural Steel Embodied Carbon Report