Your home emits CO₂ when you use gas to heat it. That’s called operational carbon emissions. Did you know that lots of CO₂ was emitted just making the stuff in your walls? Embodied carbon is the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building and infrastructure materials. We talk to MCAN’s Better Buildings Campaign Director to find out how we can reduce the embodied carbon in our buildings.

The reading list:

• A two page summary of embodied carbon- check this out!
• Learn and take action at the MCAN page on embodied carbon
• The Rocky Mountain Institute explains embodied carbon
• A startup in Boston is making low carbon cement
• Wikipedia on Portland Cement
• Environmental Product Declarations (EDP) explained
• The Climate Minute on the Zero Carbon Renovation Fund
• Find the current global CO2 ppm here
• How many days ‘til 2030?

Because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for a building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist the United States transform it’s energy sector, over the next decade, under a just and equitable plan, that uses regulations, investments and a price on carbon that protects environmental justice communities.

Thanks for listening.

…Ted McIntyre