Slowing the pace of Climate Change
— Before it’s Too Late —

Often ignored or deemed too perplexing to resolve, upfront embodied emissions — from materials fabrication and construction — accelerate the rate of global warming before the equipment, buildings and infrastructure are even used. How to reduce embodied emissions immediately is the subjects of this book.

Bringing together the science of climate change, sustainable design, and green policies in a language accessible to a diverse readership, the book includes case study examples to support design, policy, and legislative recommendations to slow emissions growth in the near term.

“a wakeup call”

“Bill Caplan’s book is a wakeup call for everyone seeking to reduce carbon emissions in newly built and retrofitted buildings. Reducing these emissions is neither easy to do nor to calculate. Caplan’s book provides a detailed analysis of the best practices for architects and builders, but also explains to everyone interested in the subject pitfalls, like failing to take into account the impact of embedded carbon from the parts that are used in construction and energy systems, and the misleading claims that are being made about emission reductions. It is a must read for everyone interested in this important subject.”

— Ken Berlin, President and CEO, The Climate Reality Project

Table of Contents

Prologue

Introduction

Part One: Sustainability and Green

Chapter 1: Buzzwords & Muddle.

Chapter 2: From Instinct to Science; Philosophy to Practice.

Chapter 3: Parsing Carbon, Sustainability, and Green.

Chapter 4: Reality and the Call for Action.

Part Two: Thwarting Climate Change

Chapter 5: What We Are Up Against; What Must We Do.

Chapter 6: The Role of Design.

Chapter 7: Confronting Embodied Carbon Now.

Chapter 8: Taking the Roads Less Traveled.

About the Author.

Acknowledgments.

Principle References.

Index.

Prologue

“The most alarming of man’s assaults upon the environment is the con­tamination of the air, earth, rivers and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials.” Rachel Carson’s words in Silent Spring referred to chemicals, the massive use of pesticides. The year was 1962. Silent Spring provided a catalyst for the modern environmental movement more than a half-century ago spawning grassroots activities across the country. A new consciousness awakened that led to the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. Twenty million Americans participated in calling for a green environment, and to this day, Earth Day events are celebrated annually around the world. The U.S. Envi­ronmental Protection Agency was also founded that year, “born in the wake of elevated concern about environmental pollution.” While 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of both, we still face the reality of our current assault on the environment—greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—as we approach Earth Day 2022.

During those 50 years, we learned that gases emitted while burning car­bon-based fuels are just as dangerous to our survival as the indiscriminate use of pesticides revealed in Silent Spring. Not only emissions from power­ing transportation, lighting, heating, cooling, and industrial production, but also those associated with fabricating buildings and infrastructure—from mining and processing raw materials to final construction.

Unfortunately, as in 1962, we have been assaulting the environment through complacency. Yet since that time, our drive and technological prowess carried people to the moon and back and remotely directed vehicles across the surface of Mars. Despite our engineering capability and knowledge of sustainable design we ignored the detrimental effects of consumption and pollution, and continue to construct our built environment with such disregard. We continue to con­sume our planet’s resources at an expanding rate, producing waste and pollu­tion in ever-increasing quantities. This is especially egregious considering the commercial availability of clean energy from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydrothermal sources, and because architects, planners, and policymakers have been educated in environmental design strategies. Science and engineer­ing have brought numerous energy-efficient building products to fruition as well as a fivefold increase in insulating capabilities. Though aware of global warming and the impact of GHGs, society continues to ignore the ecologi­cal impact of its creative output—of what we design, fabricate, and build. What is wrong with this picture?

In 1962, Carson noted the irony that “man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray.” Today, ironically, while facing the current crises of global warming and pollution, we draw comfort from green and sustainable design labels, rather than their veracity and efficacy which are the very key to humanity’s future. Our love affair with the notion of what we call sus­tainable and green is palliative. Their mere mention sparks approvals rarely questioned, often feckless like the Emperor’s New Clothes but regrettably less transparent. It is time to wake up. Too often, the buildings and products we design and construct fail to constitute “sustainable” design regardless of their certification, recognition, or awards received. Too often, their materials and fabrication overuse resources, produce excessive waste, generate pollution, or function inefficiently. This need not be so.

Growth of the built environment presents a significant problem—from new buildings to renovations to retrofits, from temporary structures to infrastructure. After all, what we build today will stand for 50 to 100 years. With 8 billion square feet (7.7 billion m2) of new construction projected each year through 2030, more than 11 billion metric tons of carbon diox­ide (CO2) will be released to the atmosphere from building operations and new construction—annually. This is nearly 40% of all energy-related car­bon emissions worldwide. We have the opportunity to reduce such emis­sions significantly through serious sustainable design. Given the prevailing knowledge of sustainable and green design techniques, our technical capabil­ity, and the media’s broad coverage of architectural achievements, one might assume that meaningful emissions reductions have been achieved. Although the proliferation of awards, certifications, fawning reviews, and art installa­tions convey that impression—it is simply not so.

Despite substantial gains achieved through the use of light-emitting diodes (LED), energy-efficient appliances, and renewable energy, gains derived from the science of building are severely lacking, with addressing “embodied carbon” emissions among the most overlooked. This failure to take the fundamentals of sustainable design seriously is long overdue for correction. Whether or not Nero fiddled while Rome burned is academic; our present fiddling with future solutions while temperatures rise is real.

Thwart Climate Change Now: Reducing Embodied Carbon Brick by Brick seeks to shed light on the built environment’s unseen emissions and lay a pathway to their reduction “now,” before a precarious concentration of atmospheric carbon has been set in concrete. In 1910, the atmospheric concentration of CO2 reached 300 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in more than 300,000 years. It averaged only 317 ppm in 1960 while Rachel Carson was penning Silent Spring—increasing merely 17 ppm over 50 years. The next 50 were less gentle. By 2010, the increase in CO2 concentration was four times that, and on its way toward 417 ppm in 2021.6

Keep that in mind as you read this book.

Bill Caplan , September 2, 2021

Published by the Environmental Law Institute.
Available from West Academic.
Available on Amazon