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Course Description: AEC Daily: The Bigger Carbon Picture: Evaluating Insulation and Building Enclosure Assemblies
As the building industry works toward net-zero-carbon goals, the carbon impacts of enclosure materials and assemblies are increasingly important. This course examines embodied and operational carbon and explains how life-cycle assessments (LCAs) and environmental product declarations (EPDs) are used to evaluate environmental impact. Participants explore how insulation type, thermal performance, and assembly design influence the total carbon footprint and how full-assembly life-cycle assessment provides a more meaningful measure of carbon impact than comparing individual products. Through full-assembly comparisons, climate zone considerations, a real-world case study, and specification guidance, participants gain strategies for designing and specifying lower-carbon building enclosures.
Describe the environmental impact of a building’s embodied and operational carbon, how LCAs and EPDs quantify the impact, and why the embodied carbon of building materials is a growing priority.
Compare the water, air, vapor, and thermal properties, assembly requirements, embodied carbon performance, and appropriate applications of common exterior and interior insulation types.
Explain the value of full-assembly life-cycle assessment over single-material analysis and utilize data from industry resources to support carbon evaluation at each design phase, as required by LEED® v5.
Apply insights from a full-assembly comparison, climate zone considerations, a real-world case study, and practical tips to inform low-carbon, energy-efficient enclosure design and specification.