From The Editor

With a nod to Architect Magazine , I titled this edition the Carbon Issue because my inbox was overflowing with articles about carbon emissions, embodied carbon, and the like. There are a number of good articles here, including this rather lengthy article in Canadian Architect magazine by Jennifer O'Conner, president of the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute. While I highly encourage you to read the entire piece, some of the key take-aways include a reminder that life cycle assessment is only as good as the data and assumptions it is based on , use of higher-embodied carbon products should be optimized, and keeping existing buildings around longer helps avoid new carbon emissions . And she concludes, " The bottom line: no single material will solve the embodied carbon problem , and designers need to choose all materials carefully."

Christine "Tina" Subasic, PE, LEED AP        

CSubasicPE@aol.com

 

NOTE: Inclusion in this newsletter is not an endorsement of the products and materials featured, nor have these products been evaluated by TMS or the editor. Furthermore, the views expressed in the articles featured are those of the article authors.