SE 2050 COMMITMENT

The design and construction industry has made significant strides in reducing operational energy use and GHG emissions from buildings. It is now positioned to significantly reduce total GHG emissions by committing equal focus to reducing embodied carbon of building materials.

Structural materials account for at least half of the carbon emitted in production, delivery, and installation of materials for new construction, defined as the embodied carbon of the structure. In 2016, the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) created a working group to develop a data-driven commitment for structural engineering firms to reduce and ultimately reach net zero embodied carbon in their building designs.

In the fall of 2019, the CLF issued the SE 2050 Challenge to the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), challenging all structural engineers to “understand, reduce and ultimately eliminate embodied carbon in their projects by 2050.” SEI developed the SE 2050 Commitment in response to the challenge and launched the commitment to structural engineering firms across the United States in the fall of 2020.

The goals of the SE 2050 Commitment are to:

– Educate the structural engineering profession on best practices that will lead to net zero embodied carbon by 2050;

– Engage in an embodied carbon tracking program to establish targets for embodied carbon reduction;

– Report on the current embodied carbon trends of various structural systems for different regions throughout the country; and

– Advocate and communicate with clients, the design community, and the public to build an understanding about the sustainability impacts of the built environment.

Our Progress

As signatories of the SE 2050 Commitment, we authored and issued our first Embodied Carbon Action Plan (ECAP) to the SE 2050 Committee in March 2022. The ECAP serves as our action plan to define our firm’s approach to achieving the four goals set by the SE 2050 Commitment, and will be updated annually with our progress.

The topic of embodied carbon reduction in structural materials is in its infancy when compared to the topic of building operational carbon reduction. Our internal SE 2050 Committee, along with Thrive@EC, is actively developing and providing educational resources for the firm, including an internal sustainability continuing education series of presentations. These resources will support our structural engineers in their continuing education and embodied carbon reduction strategies in our designs.

EwingCole reported 2 projects to the national SE 2050 Database in the first year as a signatory to the commitment. These projects represent different approaches to embodied carbon in structures; One which incorporates significant sustainable and biophilic structural materials, demonstrating the embodied carbon reductions that can be achieved in a sustainable design; and one which uses more conventional structural materials with a larger embodied carbon impact, demonstrating where conventional materials fall on the scale of embodied carbon impact.