C. De Wolf (SXL) invited at CalPoly

Right now, we don’t know the carbon footprint of buildings – so we can appraise them as works of architecture or works of engineering. In her presentation at California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly), Catherine De Wolf offers to measure their embodied carbon. While benchmarks exist for the operational carbon, related to the use of the building, such as heating or lighting, there are no reliable and consistent benchmarks yet for the embodied carbon, related to the material extraction, production, transport, construction, maintenance, and demolition. By establishing embodied carbon benchmarks, this work gives the opportunity for engineers and architects to design buildings differently.

Seminar, Prof. Ed Saliklis, Department of Architectural Engineering, CalPoly