The Carbon Leadership Forum Announces EC3 Tool Partnership

The Carbon Leadership Forum, in partnership with a coalition of more than 30 building industry leaders, announced that they have taken on a long-elusive goal, measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of building materials. The result is the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, an open source tool for architects, engineers, owners, construction companies, building material suppliers and policy makers to compare and reduce embodied carbon emissions from construction materials.

Between now and 2060, the world’s population will be doubling the amount of building floorspace, equivalent to building an entire New York City every month for 40 years. Most of the carbon footprint of these new buildings will take the form of embodied carbon—the emissions associated with building material manufacturing and construction. As a result, owners, designers, engineers and contractors are turning their attention to building materials and seeking information on these products so they can make informed, smart choices. This task has been sometimes difficult due to the lack of data or data too complex to effectively evaluate.