Next, we should examine which components of the building are significant enough to impact the overall embodied carbon: structure, insulation, and HVAC systems are the big ones. There’s a lot of “stuff” in the structure and insulation of a building, and these are the main aspects to target first. HVAC systems have much less “stuff,” so it is not intuitive to think that these components have a significant impact. Refrigerants in heat pumps and air-conditioning systems are the culprit, and a simple refrigerant leak can wipe out any measures taken to reduce the operational or embodied carbon of a good building. We’ll focus on the assemblies, or the “stuff” in this article, but there is also a good reference read about refrigerants4. — continued on page 38 1. Cheaper is better. Say what?! Not always, but Occam’s Razor holds true in many instances of construction as well as in physics (because building is physics!). The simplest, least-expensive solution is often the best for the planet. There’s so much to unwind in this subject, but in general, less processed and especially plant or bio-based materials have lowcarbon impacts. In the case of plant-based, there is potential for carbon storage, depending upon the practices of the harvesting and processing, i.e., forestry or farming practices, lumber company, the mill, transportation, etc. In a relatively rural state, we face some challenges to implementing practices that help us reduce the embodied carbon footprint of buildings. In general, the building industry evolves slowly, and being a rural area, even more slowly. CARBON IMPACTS OFINSULATION 37
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