Our built spaces have a significant impact on climate change ? in fact, the building and construction industry is responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In Canada, specifically, homes and buildings account for 18% of national GHG emissions.  
Centennial College-Progress Campus, rendering courtesy of DIALOG
While these emissions might typically be associated with operational carbon, or the GHGs emitted during the use of a building, like electricity and natural gas, it?s the embodied carbon emissions that architects and building professionals also need to focus on.  
Embodied carbon is the carbon footprint of a material and considers all GHGs emitted throughout the product?s supply chain, installation, use, replacement and end-of-life disposal. It also may represent 90% of total building-related emissions by 2050 if the industry keeps moving toward net-zero operating carbon but does not address embodied carbon.    To effectively reduce embodied carbon emissions, building industry professionals, including architects and designers, must prioritize low-carbon material procurement for their projects. And to do this, product manufacturers and suppliers can invest in transparency efforts to help provide visibility into the footprint of materials and products.   
Luckily, there are tools and resources available today for this to happen, but it has been a long road to get to the level of material transparency we have today.  
The Past: Unders...