Leading the built environment to the next level on the road to COP26 in Glasgow… begins TODAY!

RESET! TIMING IS EVERYTHING

The new imperative identifies the actions and provides a roadmap that will lead to an immediate global response in the built environment that meets the 1.5ºC Paris Agreement target

Urban planning strategies, adaptive reuse and infill, and smart urban infill provide significant opportunities in mitigating new embodied carbon associated with the massive amount of global new construction and development projected to take place by 2030.

Organizations and organizing professionals from around the world are making big moves. Learn how top down and bottom up actions are changing practice as we know it.

The leaders transforming design and architecture practice to mitigate climate change discuss the impactful actions they are taking and proliferating to transform culture, industry, and practice to meet the 1.5ºC targets.

Every year, 6.13 billion square meters of buildings are constructed, responsible for approximately 3729 million metric tons CO2 per year. This session explores major opportunities, technologies and material innovations for dramatically and immediately sequestering carbon in building materials, infrastructure and restorative landscapes.

Watch a demo of a tool or software available for reducing operational and embodied carbon impacts – or take a break!

Design choices are the first and most important step for energy efficient, zero carbon buildings. What regional passive design strategies can designers utilize in practice today?

(RE)DESIGN: Repurpose, Re-Skin, Renovate

The greenest building, development, or neighborhood is the one that is already built. Can we reassess how we place a monetary, carbon, and social value on these existing assets in order to strengthen the case for reusing, repurposing, re-skinning, and renovating existing buildings?

CORE MATERIALS: Better Concrete, Better Steel

Concrete and Steel alone are responsible for approximately 20% of global annual carbon emissions. What innovations in concrete and steel allow for lower-carbon materials now, and what innovations are down the pipeline?

Meeting global climate goals will require a swift transition away from fossil-fuel powered heating, cooling, and cooking appliances within our buildings. Fossil-fuel free building technologies such as heat pumps and induction cooktops are rapidly evolving, making building electrification more affordable and efficient than ever. What is the current state of the industry and where is it headed? Is fossil-fuel free heating, cooling, and cooking currently feasible in all regions and climates? And what about heat pumps and HFC-emitting refrigerants?

THE URBAN FIX: Resilient Cities

How can we leverage urban scale planning and design to meet the 1.5ºC target? How can our cities adapt and become resilient in the face of climate change?

FOREST AND THE TREES (AND GRASS): Procuring Climate Smart Mass Timber & Bamboo

Mass timber can offer a low-carbon alternative to concrete and steel, and it’s quickly growing in popularity. What do designers need to know to get mass timber right? What other carbon-sequestering structural materials are available and scalable?

Buildings will always consume energy, but the sources of that energy have significant impacts on carbon emissions. This session dives into on-site and off-site renewable energy availability and best practices in your region, so building operations are 100% renewably powered.

SOAK IT UP: Carbon Sequestering Sites

What are the opportunities for carbon sequestration in site development and landscape design? What are the best techniques, and what tools are available for calculating the carbon balance of these landscape materials and strategies now and over time? How can site and infrastructure design mitigate heat island effect?

FOREST AND THE TREES (AND GRASS): Procuring Climate Smart Mass Timber & Bamboo

What are the implications and advantages of selecting low embodied carbon systems like climate smart CLT, Glulam, and NLT? For project teams? Design and detailing? Permitting? Construction cost, schedule and logistics? Owner’s bottom line?

Watch a demo of a tool or software available for reducing operational and embodied carbon impacts – or take a break!

Quickly achieving zero carbon in building operations is a critical dimension of a CarbonPositive future. This session covers the recent policies for decarbonizing building operations in both new construction and the existing building stock, including the ZERO Code, all-electric new construction, and critical considerations for electrifying existing buildings.

10 BILLION MOUTHS TO FEED! Emissions, Urban Agriculture and Development

By the end of the century, experts believe that our agricultural land will produce only half as much food as it does currently, even as the population is growing. Meanwhile, the bulk of population growth will occur in urban areas–where agriculture has historically been limited. How must our food systems transform to feed the growing urban population, protect forests and biodiversity, and prioritize resiliency?

RIGHT-SIZING: Core Building Material Optimization

What is the structural “sweet spot” for optimizing materials in order to reduce embodied carbon? Are there rules of thumb designers can use in design, or does optimization occur on a case-by-case basis?

The large majority of the existing building stock will continue to be operating over the next decades. This showcase will feature how designers are upgrading these buildings for a decarbonized future.

CITIES LEAD: An Embodied Carbon Policy Framework

Cities are often at the forefront of climate policy, and the opportunities for impactful embodied carbon interventions at the city-scale are plentiful. What municipal embodied carbon policies have currently been implemented, and what are the most promising opportunities for future municipal embodied carbon action to drive impactful, large-scale reductions?

LET’S GET REAL: The Power of Real Estate and Procurement

What is the role of real estate in addressing issues and challenges including climate change, waste, biodiversity, social impact, accessibility and supply chain sustainability?

It is anticipated that the global building stock will double in the next four decades. This showcase will feature the best carbon positive designs and their scalable strategies for zero operating and embodied emissions.

COMPLETING THE CIRCLE: Towards a Circular Economy

Unlocking the circular economy holds great potential for dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. How does it apply to buildings and cities? What are the circular strategies that make a compelling business case for low carbon buildings?

INTERIORS MATTER: Material Impacts, Innovation & MEP

Over its lifespan, building use and renovation can have significant embodied carbon impacts. How important are interior materials in a project’s overall embodied carbon footprint? Which interior materials are most important to focus on? Does CarbonPositive provide a lens for thinking differently about how we design interiors for remodel cycles, resiliency and the circular economy?