Department of Architecture Faculty Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/19660

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CLF Embodied Carbon Toolkit for Roadway Infrastructure Part 2: Accounting for Embodied Carbon in Roadway Infrastructure
(2024-02-09) Ashtiani, Milad; Lewis, Meghan; Waldman, Brook; Simonen, Kate
Embodied carbon accounting is critical to identify key contributors to embodied carbon, evaluate the highest-impact, most cost-effective reduction opportunities, and track progress toward a net-zero carbon future. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a standardized methodology for quantifying the environmental impacts of a process, product, or system (e.g. building or roadway) over its entire life cycle, from material extraction (“cradle”) to disposal (“grave”). LCAs globally follow a family of standards through an open stakeholder development process. ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 are example standards that describe the principles and framework for LCA and lay out basic requirements. This toolkit focuses on LCA related to roadway infrastructure, construction materials, and related processes to manufacture and build roadways. Using LCA, greenhouse gas emissions are added up across the life cycle and reported as global warming potential (GWP). Here, we explore frameworks, methods, and insights into how LCA can help create an accounting mechanism for embodied carbon from roadway infrastructure.
CLF Embodied Carbon Toolkit for Roadway Infrastructure Part 3: Strategies to Reduce Embodied Carbon in Roadway Infrastructure
(2024-02-09) Ashtiani, Milad; Lewis, Meghan; Waldman, Brook; Simonen, Kate
Roadway infrastructure results in significant greenhouse gas emissions released due to the extraction and manufacturing of materials and all other process necessary to build and maintain it - also known as embodied carbon. Once identified and quantified, strategies need to be developed in order to reduce embodied carbon emissions from emitting sources. This toolkit provides an overview of strategies for reducing embodied carbon in roadways. Although not meant to create an exhaustive list, existing and proposed roadway carbon reduction strategies are broken into several broad categories here: 1) Project design and delivery strategies: Early design and planning decisions at project level that prioritize carbon reduction -among other sustainability metrics- as a goal. 2) Specifications, contracting, and procurement strategies: Stakeholder level strategies that encourage, incentivize, or mandate the use of low carbon materials. 3) Emissions reduction strategies categorized according to LCA stage: a) Material production strategies (A1-A3): Practices to extract, manufacture, and produce materials with lower upstream embodied carbon. b) Construction activities strategies (A4-A5): Practices that reduce fossil fuel consumption from on and off road equipment and improve construction quality. c) Use phase and end-of-life strategies (B and C): Practices that maintain roadway performance during lifecycle and sustainable waste management practices.
CLF Embodied Carbon Toolkit for Roadway Infrastructure Part 1: Introduction to Embodied Carbon and Roadway Infrastructure
(2024-02-09) Ashtiani, Milad; Lewis, Meghan; Waldman, Brook; Simonen, Kate
Greenhouse gas emissions released due to the manufacturing, transportation, and installation of products are collectively known as embodied carbon. Embodied carbon can be released during any stage of a transportation infrastructure life cycle including the initial construction, maintenance, and the end of life. Embodied carbon due to the construction and maintenance of roadways is a large contributor to overall GHGs attributed to transportation agencies owning and managing these public assets. This toolkit aims to help departments of transportation (DOTs) and other transportation agencies better understand the sources of GHG emissions from building the roadway infrastructure.
End of Life Modeling and Data in North American Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment Tools
(2024-04-01) Ashtiani, Milad; Palmeri, Jordan; Simonen, Kathrina
At the end of their service lives, building materials are either recovered (e.g., reused, recycled, incinerated) or disposed of in landfills. In life cycle assessment (LCA) terms, the environmental impacts due to material recovery or disposal are accounted for within the end-of-life (EOL) stage. Through interviews, a survey, and a workshop, this research explores the functions that existing whole building LCA (WBLCA) tools offer to create models that can best represent EOL processes. This research further explores tool functionalities and data needs and provides recommendations and future research directions to improve EOL modeling in WBLCA tools.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory from Construction of Washington State Department of Transportation Roadways, Final Report
(2023-04-13) Ashtiani, Milad; Lewis, Meghan; Huang, Monica; Simonen, Kate
Recent emphasis on actions to reduce large-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has pushed most state departments of transportation (DOTs) to develop carbon accounting practices compatible with their current standard data collection and storage practices. In particular, with the recently passed Buy Clean Acts in California, Colorado, and Oregon and the recently proposed Buy Clean and Buy Fair Washington Act, common construction materials such as cement concrete, steel, and asphalt are now under special attention. Once accurate and reliable accounting of GHG emissions is established, strategies can be formed that would help mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of materials utilized by state DOTs. This project, in collaboration with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), is an attempt to perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) on some of the agency-wide operations that emit GHGs. To date, WSDOT has not conducted a comprehensive assessment on the embodied carbon of its construction material usage (i.e., upstream Scope 3 emissions inventory) with most previous carbon accounting practices being focused on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (i.e., the carbon footprint of direct and indirect energy usage). Although several strategies are now in place to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions, such as the use of alternative and renewable energy sources, strategies to reduce Scope 3 emissions have neither been fully recognized nor quantified. Therefore, this project uses several data sources from WSDOT in conjunction with lifecycle emission factor data to estimate GHG emissions from the materials used to build and maintain roadways under WSDOT’s jurisdiction. We found that upstream Scope 3 emissions for WSDOT as an agency contributes to more than half of its currently tracked total GHG emissions inventory by a five-year average of 310 thousand metric tons of CO2eq. This project further suggests carbon reduction targets for WSDOT and uses decarbonation scenarios to provide recommendations to achieve GHG reduction targets of 50% below the 2020 baseline in 2030 and 90% below the 2020 baseline in 2050.
Developing an Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator - Quantifying the embodied emissions reduction potentials of city policies
(Carbon Leadership Forum, 2022-04) Benke, Brad; Lewis, Meghan; Carlisle, Stephanie; Huang, Monica; Simonen, Kate
The Buy Clean California Act requires the California Department of General Services (DGS), in consultation with the California Air Resources Board, to establish maximum acceptable global warming potential (GWP) limits at industry-average for structural steel (hot-rolled sections, hollow structural sections, and plate), concrete reinforcing steel, flat glass, and mineral wool board insulation (heavy and light). DGS is directed to set these limits at the industry average using data from facility-specific environmental product declarations (EPDs) or industry-wide EPDs based on domestic production data. The goal of this report is to propose industry-average GWP values for eligible materials under BCCA using a methodology that 1) meets the requirements and intent of the BCCA; 2) is representative of typical manufacturing production; and 3) is constrained to high quality, published LCA data sources that are available as of December 2021.
Transformative Carbon-Storing Materials: Accelerating an Ecosystem
(2021-11-15) Kriegh, Julie
Recent recognition of the severity of the climate crisis and the need for major, impactful interventions has accelerated interest in low-carbon and carbon-storing materials that can redress the significant upfront emissions associated with conventional building materials. Decades of previous work to develop, improve, and implement these materials now provide a strong base of research, product development, and case studies that can support the drive to bring these materials to market quickly and help meet global climate targets. Past experience with low-carbon and carbon-storing building materials has shown that specification and use of materials are indeed feasible and can match conventional alternatives in terms of cost, code compliance, and construction schedules. However, the significant investments required to scale many of these materials has largely impaired their shift into the mainstream. The potential for meaningful climate impact through materials that serve as carbon sinks now gives such materials a clear advantage, with the potential to reverse the climate profile of buildings from a leading driver of carbon emissions to carbon reservoirs that can help reverse it. Findings from this study highlight six materials for use in building foundations, structures, and/or enclosure systems. These materials—earthen slabs, non-portland cement concrete slabs, algae-grown bricks/panels, mycelium structural tubes, purpose-grown fiber, and agricultural waste panels—warrant in-depth examination because they offer novel material technologies or novel material uses with high carbon-storing potential, and they are worthy of investment to accelerate their scaling, manufacturing, and marketable use in the building industry supply chain. Furthermore this study outlines a methodology for establishing evaluation criteria to assess a given material’s potential for impact in a carbon-positive architecture.
Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings: A Practice Guide
(The Carbon Leadership Forum, Department of Architecture, University of Washington, 2018-05-30) Huang, Monica
This Practice Guide introduces the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to analyze the environmental impacts of buildings. The intent of this Practice Guide is to help building professionals understand how to use LCA in their work. It addresses basic questions such as: • How do buildings impact the environment? • What is LCA and how is it used to evaluate buildings? • How do you conduct an LCA of a building?
Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study: LCA for Low Carbon Construction
(University of Washington, 2017) Simonen, Kate; Droguett, Barbara Rodriguez; Strain, Larry; McDade, Erin; Barrera, S.; Huang, M.
The Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study provides data to building industry professionals integrating embodied carbon into life cycle decision making. However, in order to allow embodied carbon results to be comparable across projects and practices, a common standard for life cycle analysis is required. The next stage of this project will result in the creation of such an environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) practice guide (due December 2017). This report outlines the first stage of the project, which establishes reasonable estimates of the embodied carbon of buildings (the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from extracting, manufacturing and installing materials and products over the life cycle of a building) and characterizes the level and sources of uncertainty in our current knowledge.
Action: Better City
(American Institute of Architects, Seattle Chapter, 1968)
A Greek temple in French Prairie: the William Case House, French Prairie, Oregon, 1858-59
(Marion Dean Ross Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, 2007) Hildebrand, Grant; Sutermeister, Miriam
A Greek Temple in French Prairie: The William Case House, French Prairie, Oregon, 1858-59 chronicles a remarkable settlement-era Classical Revival farmhouse in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The house was built in 1859 as the headquarters of a busy and productive farming operation founded by William Case. The house is known for its distinctive peripteral colonnade and its red exterior. Hildebrand and Sutermeister were drawn to their project after a first visit to the present occupants and restorers of the house, fellow Chapter members Wallace Huntington and Mirza Dickel. Over a period of several years the authors visited their friends and conducted research aimed at more completely documenting the character of the farmhouse both in its historic period and as restored and enhanced by gardens.

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