#4 Current Trends in Sustainability

 Current Trends in Sustainability 

Gina Christopher 

Carbon Leadership Forum:

The carbon leadership forum accelerates the transformation of the building sector to radically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to materials used in buildings and infrastructure. Carbon leadership forums’ mission is to eliminate embodied carbon of buildings materials and infrastructure to create a just and thriving future. The carbon leadership forum propels knowledge through its embodied carbon research and resources, collaboration through its robust network of architects, engineers, contractors, material suppliers, building owners, policymakers, and associations, and action by supporting and empowering its members to advance new ideas and approaches through impactful initiatives. The carbon leadership forum is in Oakland CA, and they currently have no open positions available. If you are interested, you could sign up for their newsletter or visit the CLF community to get updates umm upcoming positions.  The carbon leadership forum Is so important because embodied carbon is an urgent problem. To avoid impacts of climate change, it is essential that we reduce embodied carbon and develop a pathway to low carbon construction.

Architecture 2030:

Architecture 2030 is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization established in 2002 in response to the ongoing climate emergency. Architecture 2030's mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from the major emitter of greenhouse gases to a central solution to the climate crisis. They empower the built environment to achieve these goals through design and planning, education, policy and collaboration. They have had nearly two decades of success of transforming the built environment including they focused on embodied carbon and materials, local government codes and policies that rapidly scale solutions, “how-to” conferences, and major international sector actions, and collaborations. Architecture 2030 works with new and existing buildings. Achieving zero emissions from the existing building stock will require accelerating the rate and depth of energy upgrades by leveraging building intervention points. Achieving zero emissions from new buildings will require energy efficient buildings that use no on site fossil fuels and are 100% powered by on or off-site renewable energy. Achieving zero carbon new buildings today is not as difficult as it once was. Zero carbon buildings are supported by current building energy codes such as the national and international zero code (ASHRAE 90.1-2019) in the 2021 International Energy conservation code.

Health Building Network (Habitable):

Habitable's mission is to improve human and environmental health, by creating bold, science-based solutions that inspire materials innovations to eliminate pollution, mitigate climate change, and create a more equitable future. Pollution negatively impacts our environment and human health. Habitable says, we must first reduce consuming things we do not need and then prioritize phasing out the most harmful pollution sources, while identifying healthier alternatives to use instead. Habitable also says, we need new tools to mitigate climate change whole advancing planetary and human health. Lastly, Habitable says that our materials economy not only endangers the environment but also widens the equity gap. Research shows that people of color, low-wage communities, and children are the ones who shoulder the health and economic burden of how we make, buy, and dispose of “stuff.”   Habitable has developed chemical and product guides, including Pharos and Informed, to help reduce pollution, climate change, and health equity. Pharos is the industry’s most comprehensive, independent database of chemicals, polymers, metals and their associated human and environmental health hazards. Pharos provides access to all publicly available chemical hazard assessments. These toxicological assessments evaluate the inherent hazards of chemicals across a broad range of health outcomes. Informed™’s red-to-green guidance ranks building product types from worst to best in class, exposing life cycle impacts on human and planetary health.

I think that all these sustainability organizations are doing great things. Objectives such as pollution, climate change, equity, embodied carbon, and transforming the built environments are extremely important areas of concern for the overall wellbeing of our planet (environmental and human health), which may be overlooked by the average person. The reality of the situation is that if we do not have trends in sustainability that rise to the occasion for the benefit of the world, then world health will decrease at a faster and steadier rate. This is a very serious topic of concern and I’m glad that organizations such as Carbon Leadership Forum, Architecture 2030, and Health Building Network (Habitable) are stepping up.

                                                 

One Step Further:

I decided to do some more research about the projections of air pollution and carbon emissions. This information is constantly changing, and I haven't read up on it in a while. I looked at a study that estimated when 150 countries can potentially transition to 100% clean, renewable energy across all energy sectors, upon near electrification of each sector, if the countries add such energy at their most recent rates. Such a transition eliminates air pollution and carbon emissions from energy. The results showed that China could eliminate its energy-related air pollution and climate-relevant emissions by 2051 due to its rapid pace of WWS deployment. WWS stand for winds, water, solar. I found this article extremely interesting and hopeful! I will attach some of the result charts below. 

 

Extra Credit Links: 

What is embodied carbon in buildings?

Air Pollution 101 | National Geographic

Part 1: Introduction to the Built Environment

References: 

About | Habitable | Celebrating Two Decades of Impact with Habitable. (2026, January 26). Habitable. https://habitablefuture.org/about/

Architecture 2030. (2023). Architecture 2030. Www.architecture2030.org. https://www.architecture2030.org/

Home Page. (n.d.). Carbon Leadership Forum. https://carbonleadershipforum.org/

Jacobson, M. Z. (2026). Projections of when each of 150 countries May eliminate air pollution and carbon emissions from all energy. RSC Sustainability.