The 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.
Should your organization be a member? Contact Andrew Himes.
Reports from:
- Intro and Welcome from Andrew Himes, CLF
- Mel Chafart — CLF’s Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator for Buildings
https://ec-policy-reduction-calculator.carbonleadershipforum.org/ - Tiffany Reed-Villarreal, P.E. — National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
- Stephanie Hanford — Ceres
- Brian Johnson — MEP 2040
- Marco Sirotti — Bellona Europa
- Ash Lauth — Industrious Labs
- Jasmina Burek — BuildSmart, techhub at UMass Lowell
MassInsider - Mikhail Haramati — NRDC
https://coloradocpace.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/R_Copy-of-CO_C-PACE_Program_Guide_April-2026_version-6.0.pdf - Natalie Georgieff — Center for Sustainable Building Research, College of Design, University of Minnesota
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g8olOnPu4irysNrpk9hbpo4FVJQfM5DQ/view?usp=sharing
Radware Bot Manager Captcha - Lyndsay Watkins USGBC
LEED certification deadlines | U.S. Green Building Council
https://informaconnect.com/greenbuild/ - Alejandro Romero — BREEAM USA
- Stephanie Dalo — CLF BC Symposium and CAGBC’s 3rd National Embodied Carbon Summit
Recap of CAGBC’s National Embodied Carbon Summit 2025 - Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC)
Embodied Carbon Awards | Carbon Leadership Forum BC (CLF BC) - Vincent Martinez — Architecture 2030
Beacon – Architecture 2030
Architecture 2030 E-News – Architecture 2030
Built Environment Coalitions Map, by Architecture 2030 - Anna Ostrander — American Wood Council
https://woodsourcing.awc.org/
LCA Index - WoodWorks | Wood Products Council
Environmental Product Declarations - American Wood Council
Library of LCA’s on Wood Products - McKenzie Glass — Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency, Denver
- Yijia Han — Global Energy Monitor
Global Cement and Concrete Tracker
China's heavy industry: the data behind 45% of global industrial emissions | Global Energy Monitor - Heather House — RMI
Quick recap
This was a quarterly meeting of the NGO Government Roundtable on Embodied Carbon, hosted by the Carbon Leadership Forum on July 8, 2026. The meeting featured presentations from various organizations sharing updates on embodied carbon tools, policies, and initiatives. Mel Chaffert from CLF presented the Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator, a web-based tool that allows policymakers to model and compare different carbon reduction policies. Tiffany Reed Villarreal from NRMCA provided an overview of their concrete sustainability initiatives, including new EPD benchmarks and industry standards. Stephanie Hanford from Ceres discussed their work on steel decarbonization and direct reduced iron technology. Brian Johnson from MEP 2040 shared updates on their embodied carbon measurement guidelines and pilot findings. Marco Siroti from Europa provided insights on European policy developments, including new regulations for embodied carbon in buildings and industrial decarbonization requirements. Ash Luath from Industrious Labs presented their work on cement decarbonization in the Global South, highlighting a successful workshop in Tanzania. Other presenters included Jasmina Burek from BuildSmart, Mikhail Karamati and Dharma Santos-Santiago from NRDC on state-level initiatives, Natalie Georgiev from the Center for Sustainable Building Research on Minnesota’s Buy Clean program, Stephanie Dalo from CAGBC on Canada’s embodied carbon summit, Vincent Martinez from Architecture 2030 on their new Beacon newsletter and coalition mapping project, Anna Ostrander from the American Wood Council on wood products sustainability data, and representatives from Denver’s Climate Action Office and Global Energy Monitor on policy and data tracking initiatives.
Summary
Embodied Carbon Policy Calculator
Mel presented the Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator, a web-based tool developed by the Carbon Leadership Forum that allows policymakers to establish business-as-usual embodied carbon impacts and model the effects of different policy scenarios. The tool includes four main policy types: building reduction targets, building embodied carbon budgets, material policies, and reuse incentives, with customizable options for scope, typology, and lifecycle stages. Mel explained that the calculator uses data from CLF’s benchmarking studies and Washington State carbon emissions estimation, and noted that the tool is hosted in-house with all code owned by CLF.
Embodied Carbon Policy Integration Tool
Mikhail from NRDC presented a tool designed for policymakers to integrate embodied carbon into decision-making, with potential research applications as well. Mel explained the tool’s intended audience and functionality, noting its alignment with other publications aimed at supporting policy integration.
Tiffany from NRMCA discussed the organization’s sustainability initiatives, including updates to the Concrete Product Category Rule Version 3 and progress on embodied carbon benchmarks. She also highlighted upcoming standards and resources, emphasizing NRMCA’s support for incorporating low-carbon concrete in projects.
Embodied Carbon Transition Updates
Stephanie Hanford from Ceres provided an overview of her organization’s work on addressing material risks and opportunities in the low-carbon transition, particularly focusing on steel and embodied carbon in construction. She highlighted a recent six-month project with Amazon on embodied carbon and discussed Ceres’s efforts to drive investment into cleaner technology, including a current study on direct reduced iron facilities in the United States.
Brian Johnson from MEP 2040 announced updates to the Beginner’s Guide to Embodied Carbon version 2 and shared findings from their whole life pilot study, which analyzed embodied carbon intensity in about 20 projects.
Marco provided an overview of embodied carbon initiatives in Europe, highlighting the Delegated Act for the Energy Performance of Building Directive and the Industrial Accelerator Act, which includes requirements for low-carbon cement and concrete in public procurement. He noted that while 5% of public procurement for cement and concrete is proposed for 2030, they are advocating for an increase to 50% and are working on mandatory environmental criteria in public procurement directives. Marco also mentioned ongoing work on zero-emission construction sites and upcoming initiatives on carbon storage in building products, including a carbon removal certification framework for bio-based materials and formalized products.
Ash Lauth from Industrious Labs discussed their work facilitating a global cement network focused on the Global South, emphasizing the need for more representation from the Global South in international decarbonization efforts and their current focus on producing a paper about public procurement in the Global South.
Ash presented a successful workshop in Tanzania that brought together government officials, industry players, and community members to develop a decarbonization strategy aligned with the nation’s climate action plan. The workshop resulted in a merged pilot project focusing on community-based emissions monitoring and led to UNIDO presenting a new national climate action plan with explicit carve-outs for cement and concrete. Carbon expressed interest in featuring Ash’s work in their Embodied Carbon Spotlight series on the Carbon Leadership Forum website, focusing on environmental and climate justice in developing economies.
Jasmina from BuildSmart then briefly described their newly funded 4.5 million project to develop climate resilient housing innovation testbeds at UMass Lowell, including a Sustainable Materials Innovation and Research Center focused on sustainable materials and building technologies.
Industrial Decarbonization Policy Initiatives
Mikhail Karamati from NRDC introduced their organization’s work on state-level industrial decarbonization, including efforts to oppose California’s AB1704 bill and the upcoming release of a New York State embodied carbon action plan. Dharma Santos-Santiago presented NRDC’s successful work in expanding CPACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing) to include embodied carbon in Colorado, highlighting their collaboration with RMI and CLF to develop guidelines published last month. The Colorado initiative was achieved through bipartisan effort with no fiscal cost to the state, and the team emphasized three key principles in developing the program guidance: simplicity, policy alignment, and ambitious yet pragmatic implementation.
Natalie Georgiev from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Sustainable Building Research presented an update on Minnesota’s Buy Clean program implementation. She outlined key dates including the July 15th implementation of GWP limits and EPD disclosure requirements for concrete and rebar used in buildings, with future limits for structural steel, asphalt paving, and concrete pavement to be set in January 2028. The program has made progress with three grantees generating over 759 EPDs across multiple plants, and a partnership with Built Cold is being developed to create a database for tracking EPD submissions.
Embodied Carbon Updates
Stephanie Dalo presented updates on two recent events: Canada GBC’s Third National Embodied Carbon Summit in Montreal and CLF’s inaugural Embodied Carbon Symposium in Vancouver. She highlighted the summit’s focus on developing compelling communications and building industry capacity for national embodied carbon implementation, noting that action cards were distributed to address challenges around cost, housing delivery, and regulatory fatigue.
Vincent Martinez from Architecture 2030 introduced their new quarterly newsletter “Beacon” and a coalition mapping project to track collaborative initiatives across the built environment.
Anna Ostrander from the American Wood Council shared details about their lifecycle survey platform and updated industry-wide EPDs for structural wood products.
Mackenzie Glass from Denver’s Climate Action Office outlined their embodied carbon pilot program and policy work, including efforts on energy code provisions and circular economy practices.
Yujia Hahn from Global Energy Monitor announced upcoming releases of global cement and concrete data, including new plant capacity information and decarbonization measures.
Heather House and Ari Bukowska from RMI discussed their merged embodied carbon and cement/concrete strategy, including updates on CPACE, CCLIMB methodology, and ResNet 1550 standard, along with new portfolio initiatives focusing on advanced market commitments and data transparency.