Carbon CO2 Emissions
Carbon emissions are an accepted measure which can be tracked and managed efficiently in order to meet the goals being set across the US and globally for all aspects of sustainability and acting to minimize the damage that we are causing to the Earth's resources.
Minimizing CO2 emissions arising from construction activities represents a key area for our industry and an absolute necessity in meeting any upcoming United States targets.
To manage you must first measure - ConstructCO2 is important in providing a simple, practical and systematic approach to measuring project carbon emissions. This enables Project Teams to re-engineer their design, procurement, logistics and construction processes to minimize their footprint.
Carbon management is becoming a key component in many of the green certification programs in the US and what once was only a discussion topic of interest has now become a priority for modern construction:
"The single greatest environmental benefit that LEED for Neighborhood Development projects can produce is climate change mitigation. Of the 56 LEED-ND credits, 38 have carbon reduction effects through less building and transportation energy use, more efficient infrastructure, and neighborhood use of renewable resources".
LEED/USGBC
"On August 31, the California legislature passed a bill establishing the most extensive carbon dioxide (CO2) emission controls yet in the United States. The law requires a 25 percent reduction in state CO2 emissions by 2020, with the first major controls taking effect in 2012.
Several northeastern U.S. states signed a regional agreement to reduce CO2 emissions in December of 2005 but their target would reduce emissions by only some 24 million tons. The California mandate, which aims to cut emissions to their 1990 level, will result in cuts of some 174 million tons".
Benefits: Clients, contractors and suppliers using ConstructCO2 are identifying quick win actions that reduce carbon, and generate potential savings through travel arrangements and material/supplier procurement, both on the project in question and on future projects.
Finally, how do we manage Carbon in this environment? ConstructCO2 provides the tools to measure and inform which is essential to manage and improve the efficiency of any project.
- Plan the approach and targets for CO2 reduction
- Do management to reduce/ minimize "energy"
- Check measuring and understanding CO2
- Act use results and lessons learnt to set approach and targets
Martin Brown - fairsnape@gmail.com
Share your commitment to reducing your footprint
