b'EMBODIED CARBONReducing Carbon Emissionsin Steel ConstructionBuilding a greener futureBY::ALEX HARTLOPER, PhD, E.I.T., and DOMINIC MATTMAN, M.Sc., P.Eng. Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd.R apidlyio reducingc thed carbonCanadianmunicipalities,itisexpectedRise-Commercial-Embodied-Carbon-emiss nsasso iate withthatnewconstructionmeetscarbonStudy_FINAL-V2.pdf.buildingconstructionisanemissionstargetssetoutbythecities immediateconcernintheCanadian(City of Toronto, 2025; City of Vancouver,EMBODIED CARBON IN THEconstructionindustryduetoglobal2023). Therefore, it is important to identifyCANADIAN CONTEXTclimatechange.Theseemissionslow-carbon building solutions at an earlyEmbodied carbon is typically estimated areoftenreferredtoasembodiedstageandhavemethodsofreducingforbuildingsthroughawholebuilding carbon,whichisameasureofthecarbon impacts as projects progress fromlife-cycle assessment (wbLCA). See Figure greenhousegasemissionsgeneratedconcept through to completion. 1foritemsthatarecontainedwithina duetomanufacturing,transportation,wbLCA. In this project, the total global installation,maintenanceanddisposalSo how does structural steel stack warmingpotential(GWP)iscalculated of building materials (Carbon Leadershipup to Canadian embodied by summing the contributions from the Forum, 2025). Minimizing the amount ofcarbon targets?product stage (A1-A3), the construction embodiedcarbonwillbeanimportantRecently, CISC and RJC jointly publishedprocess stage (A4 and A5), the use stage componenttoachievinggoalssuchasareporttoshinesomelightonthis(B1-B5) and the end-of-life stage (C1-C4). those set forth by the IntergovernmentaltopicinthecompetitivemarketplaceThisGWPisoftenquantifiedinterms Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2025). oflow-risecommercialandindustrialof mass of equivalent carbon emissions Commitment within the AEC industrybuildings.Thereportenumeratesthepermetresquaredofbuildingarea toworktowardsachievingnet-zerostructuralquantitiesandestimates(kgCO 2 e/m2), so it can be applied to a range carbonemissionsisrepresentedbyembodiedcarbonforfivetypicallow- of projects.programssuchasSE2050(SEI,2025).risesteelbuildingsinCanada.AnSo how do we estimate the impacts of Within Canada, embodied carbon targetsarticle summarizes the report, which canembodied carbon? At its core, embodied are being proposed for the 2030 Nationalbefoundonlineatwww.cisc-icca.ca/carboncanbelargelysimplifiedtoa Building Code of Canada. Within certainwp-content/uploads/2025/07/CISC-Low- basic equation:FIGURE 1:Terminology used in this report cross-referenced to terms and life-cycle stages defined in EN 15987 (European Committee for Standardization, 2011), from CAGBC (2024).16|WINTER 2025 ADVANTAGE STEEL'