Embodied carbon in the crosshairs on IMEG podcast
IMEG Director of Sustainability Adam McMillen discusses embodied carbon in the first of an IMEG podcast series on sustainability strategies of the future.
“We have pretty much figured out how to reduce operational carbon,” says McMillen. “Now the AEC industry is ready for the next step — reducing embodied carbon in steel, concrete, and wood.” Getting these materials to a construction site requires extraction or harvesting, processing, and transportation — each of which requires energy, mostly from burning fossil fuels, which in turn releases CO2. These emissions combined make up the carbon footprint, or the embodied carbon, of a material.
“People in the industry and elsewhere are really starting to get it,” says McMillen, who counts Bill Gates and Wisconsin Girl Scouts among those who are helping to spread the word. Learn more in this 15-minute podcast.
