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CALCULATORS, SOFTWARE, AND PLUG-INS
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EMBODIED CARBON
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OUTDOOR AND PUBLIC SPACE
Designed Landscapes Are Surprisingly Carbon Intensive (They Don’t Have to Be) Because urban landscapes often include hardscape made with materials that, depending on where and how they’re manufactured, can have significant carbon footprints. By Timothy A. Schuler
The carbon emitted in the production of a construction material is known as embodied carbon, and until recently, there wasn’t a good way for landscape architects to measure it. Luckily, there are now new tools that help landscape designers reduce the carbon footprints of their projects. Carbon Conscience is a free tool developed by Chris Hardy, landscape architect and senior associate at Sasaki, and it allows designers to quantify the carbon emissions of various design choices, from land use to materials. METROPOLIS
SUMMER 2024
COURTESY LAMDA DEVELOPMENT / SASAKI
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n an interview earlier this year, Thomas Heatherwick described his vision for 1,000 Trees, a mountain-size shopping center that opened in Shanghai in 2022. Waxing rhapsodic about the mall’s namesake trees, most of which are perched atop soaring concrete columns, some as tall as 200 feet, Heatherwick casually noted that the trees will “absorb tons of carbon dioxide every year”—the subtext being that this would somehow offset the CO2 emitted by the 675,000-square-foot building. In reality, the trees probably won’t sequester even a fraction of the CO2 produced by the columns alone. Heatherwick’s statement speaks to a broader cultural assumption that because vegetation can sequester carbon, in the right circumstances, designed landscapes are inherently less carbon intensive than buildings—that parks and other green spaces are automatic allies in the race to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is far from the truth, says Chris Hardy, a landscape architect and senior associate at Sasaki. “I’ve come to the realization that landscape architecture can be just as carbon intensive as architecture on a per-unit area basis,” he says. This is because urban landscapes often include plenty of hardscape—manufactured pavers or precast concrete, materials that, depending on where and