Steps to Reduce Embodied Carbon Emissions in Industrial Real Estate
Originally published on October 17, 2023, by Nate Maniktala, LEED AP, MBA for NAIOP.
Commercial real estate leaders who are looking to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction of new industrial buildings can make use of new measurement tools, data and information, including from the “Embodied Carbon in U.S. Industrial Real Estate Benchmark Survey.” Now that the first article in this series covered the basics of embodied carbon emissions, where they come from, the environmental impact, and the importance of measuring the impact associated with building materials, this piece will focus on steps to achieve a lower embodied carbon footprint.
While the steps to lowering the embodied carbon footprint of a project or portfolio are simple, they are not necessarily easy:
- Establish a baseline by conducting an embodied carbon study.
- Change design standards and material tracking requirements.
- Build differently.