Carbon Footprint--What's in a Number? [G10]

Carbon footprint is often the first attribute that is brought up in discussions of construction materials and their environmental ratings. But the actual number depends on a variety of factors: which points in the supply chain are included and how "green" each one is, where the project is located, how much renewable energy is used to product the material, and the accuracy of the data. Carbon footprint is especially important as it is often the main ingredient in life-cycle inventory databases, life-cycle analysis tools and comparative studies using both. This session provides a look at how the carbon footprint for domestic structural steel is calculated--using the most current data available--how the various points along the steel supply chain contribute and the various tools and databases where it is used. It also explores studies comparing various construction materials, based on carbon footprint and other environmental attributes, and how these materials have different impacts at different points in the life of a building.

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