NY Building Congress releases decarbonizing report

New York, NY The New York Building Congress released a report that outlines an approach for decarbonizing the building and construction industry. New York must not only continue to drastically reduce operational carbon but prioritize lowering embodied carbon–the emissions associated with the materials and construction processes used throughout a building’s lifetime. In order to reduce embodied carbon emissions released during manufacturing, transportation, construction, and demolition, the Building Congress recommends that the city:

• Establish carbon intensity zones, based on the embodied carbon impacts of construction required to develop on that land;
• Promote modular construction to reduce material waste and minimize the number of deliveries to the site;
• Link land use to carbon sequestration by pairing existing resiliency initiatives to carbon capture; and
• Design buildings for disassembly so that their components can easily be disassembled, reused and recovered to minimize material waste at the end of life.

These recommendations and more are included in “Net-Zero Whole Life Carbon”, attached for your reference. This report is part of a series that proposes substantive reforms to build the future of New York.

To read the full report, please CLICK HERE