In 2023, the Building Codes Division was directed by the Oregon Legislature, through House Bill 3409, to study embodied carbon in the building code and provide recommendations for using lower carbon building materials as well as other options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in building construction. Since then, the division's sustainability and energy analysts have worked to understand the body of knowledge related to embodied carbon provisions in building codes and policies.
The division joins statewide agency leadership in aligning support services with approaches that show potential for greenhouse gas emissions reductions, including reusing existing buildings, using lower carbon building materials, and assessing the impacts of whole building carbon emissions.
What is embodied carbon?
Embodied carbon is the greenhouse gas emissions created from the raw extraction, manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials and infrastructure. To measure embodied carbon, practitioners use a life cycle assessment methodology to track the greenhouse gas emissions produced over the full life cycle of building materials. Those embodied carbon emissions are converted into metrics that reflect their potential effects on the environment. Embodied emissions from buildings, especially those associated with the early phases of the lifecycle of a building material, are important because prioritizing reductions of these immediate emissions will help to more quickly stop the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Building codes and embodied carbon
Embodied carbon reduction requirements are not codified in the state building code. Provisions, guidelines, and recommendations on embodied carbon reduction pathways in construction are being discussed with division administrators and advisory boards for potential implementation as policy options, whether through codes or other regulatory means.