Buildings are the major source of global demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases (GHG). The raw resource extraction, manufacturing, transportation, construction, usage, and end-of-life stages of building products each generate significant GHG emissions. Slowing the growth rate of GHG emissions and then reversing it is the key to addressing climate change and keeping global average temperature below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

To accomplish this, Architecture 2030 issued The 2030 Challenge for Products asking the global architecture, planning, design, and building community to adopt the following targets:

• Products for new buildings, developments, and renovations shall immediately be specified to meet a maximum carbon-equivalent footprint of 30% below the product category average. 

The embodied carbon-equivalent footprint reduction shall be increased to:

• 35% or better in 2015
• 40% or better in 2020
• 45% or better in 2025
• 50% or better in 2030.

Embodied Carbon

The embodied energy (and embodied carbon) of building materials has always been important, but as we create more energy-efficient buildings, the proportion of total life cycle energy use and carbon emissions associated with manufacture and transport of the materials going into those buildings becomes more significant. Also, reductions in the embodied carbon emissions of materials have an immediate benefit, while the carbon reductions through reducing the building's energy consumption in operations are accrued over a longer period of time. Reducing the embodied carbon emissions of materials has a very important role to play in slowing global climate change as the goal is to reduce the total quantity of carbon dioxide getting into the atmosphere and do it as quickly as possible.