General Requirements

Projects must demonstrate actual net zero carbon operations based on a twelve-month performance period, during which time the project must be occupied consistently with its stated use. The total embodied carbon emissions of the final construction materials and processes associated with the project must be disclosed and accounted for through the procurement of equivalent carbon offsets. New projects must demonstrate a reduction in the embodied carbon of primary materials compared to an equivalent baseline. Complete requirements are outlined below.

INTENT

Promote the design of high performance, climate-positive buildings that account for their total carbon impacts by reducing and offsetting both operational and embodied carbon.

REQUIREMENTS EMBODIED CARBON REDUCTIONS

All projects must demonstrate a reduction of the embodied carbon of the primary materials (foundation, structure, enclosure) within the project scope, compared to a project-specific baseline scenario with equivalent building size, function and energy performance. Teams should identify and quantify reductions from intentional actions that were taken during design and construction to lower the project’s total embodied carbon.

LBC/ENERGY PETAL

New and Existing buildings must demonstrate a twenty percent reduction in the embodied carbon of primary materials compared to an equivalent baseline. Existing buildings may count in-situ materials against the required twenty percent.

All projects must select interior materials with lower than industry baseline embodied carbon emissions for product categories for which data is readily available.

ZERO CARBON

New and Existing buildings must demonstrate a ten percent reduction in the embodied carbon of primary materials compared to an equivalent baseline. Existing buildings may count in-situ materials against the required ten percent.

The embodied carbon associated with the construction and materials installed in the project must not exceed 500kg CO2e/m2 .

CARBON OFFSETS

For all projects, approved carbon offsets must be procured to cover the embodied carbon emissions related to any new materials utilized in the project. Projects that are calculated to have a net carbon-neutral or carbon-sequestering value from their materials are not required to procure additional carbon offsets.

GENERAL CLARIFICATIONS

EMBODIED CARBON

Applicable Building Materials

For the purposes of assessing embodied carbon, project teams should include all permanently installed materials that represent the majority of material quantities and costs associated with the project. All temporary materials, building systems, interior furnishings, equipment, site work and small or miscellaneous products are optional to include in the assessment. An example scope of material list is shown in Table 1; project teams should identify an equivalent list of materials that is applicable to their project.

Baselines and Reductions - Buildings

Embodied carbon baselines should include the carbon emissions associated with the impacts of raw material extraction, manufacturing, transportation, and installation (life cycle stages A1-A5) for materials used in the project. This baseline is used to show individual reduction strategies implemented as compared to the initial design.

Material quantity reduction baselines must reflect: 

• A building design that is identical to the initial design except for the claimed reduction measures
• The same project scope and function; a building of equivalent area, use type(s) and energy performance
• Materials and design parameters based on common industry practice for the building scale and region, and comply with all of the same applicable land use and building codes as the initial design

Project teams may utilize material type and quantity assumptions from either recently built project examples or a modeled baseline building with comparable properties to support these assumptions.

Table 1. Applicable Building Materials

Baselines and Reductions - Products

When project teams claim an embodied carbon reduction via a product alternative or selection of interior materials with a lesser impact, teams must establish a product baseline. Product baselines may be determined by one of the following:

• ILFI-approved tools that establish product category baselines
• A review of comparable products in the same material category that reflect common industry practice for the building type and region. Team is to submit a proposal to the Dialogue for approval including methodology, data sources and assumptions

Building or Material Reuse

The reuse of buildings is the most effective means to reduce the overall embodied carbon of a project. Therefore, project teams that reuse an existing building may count any in-situ primary materials against the required reduction percentage. Similarly, the use of salvaged or reused materials may contribute to meeting the reduction requirement for primary materials; this reduction can be quantified by removing the embodied carbon impacts of the materials that would have otherwise been sourced, while adding additional impacts associated with any refurbishment or processing required for reclaimed materials.

Carbon Sequestering Products

Projects may claim a benefit from substituting a carbon sequestering product for one that is carbon producing (e.g. wood vs. steel). Also, the specification of approved third-party certified sustainable harvesting strategies may be claimed as an additional product-specific embodied carbon reduction. The carbon sequestering benefits of a qualified product must be described and calculated separately from the embodied carbon of the material itself, even if it is not clearly distinguished in the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).

At this time, the Institute recognizes Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification as an approved sustainable harvesting standard with scientifically verified carbon-sequestering benefits for wood products beyond the sequestration of standard harvesting practices. Alternative certification programs or verification standards for carbon-sequestering materials must be submitted to the Dialogue for review and approval prior to use.

Embodied Carbon Data

Product-specific embodied carbon data should be sourced from Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) provided by qualified program operators on behalf of product manufacturers or industry organizations. All EPDs referenced in calculations should meet the protocols for scope, preparation and verification as outlined in ISO Standard 14025. All EPDs referenced should be as current as possible, and at a minimum must not be expired. EPD databases that ILFI has identified are as follows:

• mindful MATERIALS
• International EPD System
• Sustainable Minds
• UL SPOT

Project teams should strive to utilize EPDs that are product-specific whenever possible. When only industry average EPDs are available, teams should request or advocate for product specific data directly from manufacturers.

Industry Averages

Project teams may either select products with embodied carbon values that individually fall below the industry average baseline for the product category, or select products that fall below that product category baseline through a weighted average. Weighted average calculations may only include products of the same category.

Intentional Action

All claimed embodied carbon reductions must be associated with intentional actions taken by the project team during the design and construction phases of the project. Project teams should provide evidence of preparing comparative embodied carbon evaluations or carbon-based specifications for material or product alternatives to document this intention.

Interior Product Categories

Project teams must demonstrate the use of interior materials that have lower embodied carbon emissions than the industry baseline, where sufficient embodied carbon data is available for the product category to establish a baseline. Product baselines are currently specified in the ILFI-approved baseline tools for the following categories:

• Carpet
• Ceiling tile
• Gypsum wallboard

Reduction Types

Eligible embodied carbon reduction strategies are classified into one of three categories: a material quantity reduction, a material alternative, or a product alternative. Example strategies to reduce embodied carbon within these categories may include, but are not limited to those listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Embodied Carbon Reduction Categories and Example Strategies

CARBON OFFSETS

Approved Carbon Offsets

Carbon offsets must be certified by Green-e Climate (www.green-e.org), or an equivalent program that ensures additionality, leakage prevention, permanence and audited verification. Only Certified Emission Reduction (CER) and Verified Emission Reduction (VER) carbon credits are suitable for purchase; Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are not acceptable alternatives to carbon offsets.

Certified carbon offsets must meet the Gold Standard, Voluntary Carbon Standard, or the Climate Action Reserve requirements for third-party verification. Other certification programs or verification standards must be submitted to the Dialogue for review/approval prior to use.

The types of carbon offsets must be VERs or CERs sourced as:

• Renewable energy projects,
• Landfill gas-to-energy projects where the methane would otherwise be released to the atmosphere, or
• Reforestation projects

Carbon offsets may be sourced from any location in the world; consideration of local or community-based solutions is encouraged but not required. Consideration of carbon offsets with additional ecological, cultural, human health or equity benefits is also encouraged, but not required.

Prohibited Carbon Offsets

The carbon reducing function of on-site elements, such as native landscape, may not be applied to the project as a carbon offset or otherwise accounted for in calculating the embodied carbon footprint of the project.

Large-scale carbon sequestration assets or activities associated with the project owner must be audited through an approved third-party certifier in order to be claimed as a qualifying carbon offset. Such requests should be submitted to the Dialogue for review and approval prior to use.

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