The Carbon Question: What do interiors have to do with it?
<< All Events
The Carbon Question: What do interiors have to do with it?
With global climate change growing in severity and urgency, architects and engineers have been grappling with the embodied carbon of new buildings for years. Because most building foundation and structural systems are such carbon hogs, the impact of an interior fit-out for a new building appears as a blip – no need for designers to bother themselves with LCAs or other carbon footprint calculations. Take a deeper look: most of the global building stock already exists, and renovations never stop. New buildings exist for 25 – 50 years. Consider how many interior renovations occur within that lifespan. Interior products, from flooring to furniture, have major impacts on global warming. Take control and lead your clients to do less harm, starting now!
Registration for this session is open at the bottom of this page.
Learning Objectives
- Gain a baseline knowledge of embodied carbon and related resources for further understanding.
- Learn how embodied carbon of products contributes to global warming.
- Discover how interior projects, whether part of new buildings or renovations, can make significant positive impacts on global warming.
- Follow along using links to existing tools and resources, to practice hands-on how to reduce embodied carbon in your projects.
Course qualifies for 1LU/HSW AIA credit AND 1 hour of ZNCD CE for mandatory California architectural licensing requirements.
About the Panelists
Suzanna Drake, CID, LEED AP ID+C, WELL AP
Senior Designer, revel architecture & design | San Francisco, CA
Suzanne’s career has focused on commercial interiors, specializing in creating healthy environments and being the conduit for healthy materials knowledge dissemination. As an interior designer, she draws on over two decades of experience in workplace, health care, and laboratory environments to support client initiatives and sustainability goals. Currently, she is leading Revel’s sustainability initiative. She was instrumental in developing the Precautionary List, and has co-authored three installments of the Healthy Environments whitepaper series, including Strategies for Avoiding Flame Retardants in the Built Environment, What’s New (and What’s Not) With PVC, and Understanding Antimicrobial Ingredients in Building Materials. Her book EcoSoul: Save the Planet and Yourself by ReThinking your Everyday Habits was published in 2013.
Frances Yang
Associate, ARUP | San Francisco, CA
As leader of the sustainable materials practice in the Americas region of ARUP , Frances has extensive experience in leading projects towards lower carbon, more sustainable, and healthier outcomes. Frances oversees Arup’s embodied carbon practice in the Americas and has served as board member of the Carbon Leadership Forum, technical reviewer of the Embodied Carbon Calculator, and is vice-chair of the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment program.
