Jeremy Knoll recently presented at the USGBC virtual IMPACT Summit: Materials, Carbon, and the Circular Environment. Alongside industry peers, Trevor Acorn (Walter P Moore), Erika Winters-Downey (McCownGordon), and Christie Gamble (CarbonCure), Jeremy presented on the topic, “The Elephant in the Room - How to Tackle Embodied Carbon in Practice,” The presentation highlighted the carbon impacts of concrete and steel on the built environment, and a number of methods on reducing embodied carbon emissions associated with both.

Jeremy shared key highlights from the conference:

“Steel:

1. Composite design reduces the required volume of steel by allowing concrete and steel to work together.
2. Cambering beams, though costly, can reduce the required beam-weight and balance costs with material savings.
3. Check deflection tolerances, as these can be "right sized" for your project.

Concrete:

1. Develop performance (rather than prescriptive) concrete specifications.
2. Use minimum cement reduction/replacement values rather than maximums.
3. Refine the required cure times based on the specific application in the building.
4. Conduct additional geotechnical testing, such as an on-site test-pile to right-size your structural foundations for the specific measured conditions on site.
5. Incorporate C02 into the concrete mix. There are several new technologies which improve strength and cure time while driving the cement content down.”