Sustainability Street: Building With Less Carbon, Not More Cost
Rebecca Esau of the Rocky Mountain Institute and Skanska's Tolga Tutar discuss advances in low-carbon construction with CPE's Therese Fitzgerald.
Welcome back to Sustainability Street. CPE’s podcast on the intersection of commercial real estate and the world we live in.
Not so long ago, addressing embodied carbon in construction project was thought to be cost prohibitive. Increasingly, that is not the case.
My guests for this episode, are Rebecca Esau, a manager with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Carbon-Free Buildings Program, and Tolga Tutar, senior sustainability director with Skanska.
LISTEN ALSO: The Truth About Mass Timber
We discuss a report they’ve co-authored that demonstrates how developers are lowering embodied carbon cost effectively through early planning, available tools and more efficient materials. And we talk about how new developments in technology, circularity and bio-based materials that can store carbon will further improve the economic case for low-carbon buildings.
Here are some highlights from our conversation:
(02:07) Zeroing in on embodied carbon
(05:44) Embodied carbon then and now
(13:08) Proving the case for cost parity
(20:32) Mass timber delivers savings
(23:30) New life for old buildings
(24:28) Elevating the bid leveling process
(29:10) The importance of early planning
(36:35) The next frontier in reducing embodied carbon
(43:06) For more information…
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