CarbonStar® Resources to Decarbonize the Built Environment
The following page has information from leading organizations in the concrete decarbonization industry about how to use CarbonStar® for its intended purpose: to calculate the amount of embodied carbon in our built environment to transform concrete’s carbon footprint.
Accessing the CarbonStar® Standard and Calculator
The CarbonStar® Standard and accompanying calculator can be viewed for free or downloaded through purchase on the CSA Group or American National Standard Institute’s websites below.
Using CarbonStar®
Learn how CarbonStar® can be used to support city and facility adoption by visiting the Smart Surfaces Coalition’s website below.
Decarbonizing the Concrete Industry
For more on concrete industry practices and resources about the industry, visit the World Cement Association's website below.
For cities and states incorporating limits to their concrete’s carbon intensity…
American cities and states are taking steps to incorporate enforceable global warming potential (GWP) limits for concrete mixes into both their own projects and requirements that apply to others’ activity. They do this by updating building codes, designing government procurement requirements and performance standards, creating design and zoning requirements, and by making commitments in climate action plans and executive orders. In almost every instance, the burden is on a project developer to know and report on what materials they choose to use, using a credible, understandable methodology like CarbonStar®.
For example, federal limits on concrete mixtures’ GWP apply to some projects funded under the Inflation Reduction Act. Drawing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s interim guidance on what materials meet the Inflation Reduction Act’s target of funding materials and products “that have substantially lower levels of embodied greenhouse gas emissions associated with all relevant stages of production,” the federal guidelines set GWP limits based on an analysis of products that perform, in terms of carbon reduction, in the top 20%, top 40%, and generally above industry average. Complying with these federal guidelines requires using products in the top 20% when they are available, and in the top 40% when those are all that are available. When neither are possible, compliance means using a product that is better than the “estimated industry average” GWP.
Case Study
Image source: HNTB