5 Tips for Purchasing Greener Building Materials
Image of a green building at UBC.
Recognizing the global building sector contributes 39% of global carbon emissions, public organizations have had a strong focus on embedding sustainability into the design, construction, maintenance, operation, and demolition of both vertical and horizontal infrastructure. There have been great strides in adopting standards and certifications like LEED, WELL, and Envision as well as increasing the energy efficiency of buildings but there is lots more work to be done. Notably, experts are now calling to reduce embodied carbon of building materials like concrete, steel, mass timber, and insulation – an often hidden cost of building. 
Many of us are familiar with the concept of operational carbon: greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted when operating and maintaining a building. Embodied carbon represents the carbon footprint of materials. It considers all GHGs released throughout the material’s supply chain, including extraction, manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, and demolition (World Green Building Council). Embodied carbon is taken into account when doing a life cycle analysis (LCA) of a building (Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront, 2019).
Embodied carbon of building materials is currently responsible for 11% of global GHG emissions (see right; Carbon Leadership Forum Website, 2019). However, as buildings become more efficient and utilize clean energy, embodied carbon is expected to represent 49% of all carbon emissions of buildings by 2050 (Embodied Carbon Review, 2018).
Find 5 tips for how procurement professionals can incorporate green building best practices and consider the embodied carbon of materials in upcoming infrastructure projects below. A special thank you to our 4 industry expert who shared these insights at the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP) last Peer Exchange webinar on May 14, 2020:
- George Benson, Sector Manager, Built Environment at the Vancouver Economic Commission
- Anthony Pak, Principal at Priopta, Founder of the Carbon Leadership Forum, and building LCA
- Matt Dalkie, Technical Services Engineer at Lafarge Canada
- Arsheel Hirji, Leader of Sustainable Infrastructure at the City of Calgary
1. Learn your building policies and sustainability plans
Get up to speed on 1) the building policies and codes in your region and 2) your organization’s sustainability plans to understand what goals and targets need to be met. In Vancouver, there’s a number of relevant policies and codes including the BC Energy Step Code, the Green Buildings Policy for Rezoning, and the City’s Big Move #5 from the City’s Climate Emergency declaration.
2. Get to know who’s responsible for green building
It’s rare for a public organization to buy building materials themselves. The contractor is typically responsible for purchasing the materials and the designer guides what materials the contractor uses. Get to know who’s responsible for green building and ask to join the conversation in the early stages of the project – before specifications for designers are developed.
Look for opportunities to collaborate internally. Increasingly organizations are using integrated design processes (CMHC, 2020), which allow engineers, costing specialists, operations people, energy specialists, and other relevant actors to provide input to architects at early design stages (iiSBE, 2020).
3. Use standards and certification to set performance-based targets
For example, use the LEED scorecard to signal where the design team should focus (see Figure 1). Provide rewards for achieving higher scores over the minimum thresholds and penalties for not meeting the thresholds.
Figure 1: LEED Scorecard for Materials and Resources
Other great green building standards and certifications include WELL, Living Building Challenge, Passive House Canada, Zero Carbon Building Standard by the Canada Green Building Council, ASHRAE, and EnerGuide by Natural Resources Canada. Find comprehensive lists on the National Institute of Building Sciences and the Ecolabel Index websites.
4. Leverage Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to avoid greenwashing
Ask designers and contractors to provide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for a few priority materials. EPDs document the embodied carbon associated of specific materials. They act like food nutritional labels – either providing an industry average or a manufacturer-, product-, or plant-specific calculation. They are Third Party Verified, which helps avoid greenwashing, and are ISO 14044 & EN 15804 compliant.
Where can you find EPDs? EC3 is a new, free, open-source tool that compiles EPDs for building materials, created by a non-profit alliance of AEC firms, manufacturers, foundations, and building owners.
5. Engage your suppliers to discover sustainability innovations
Engage your suppliers to learn about the sustainability features of particular products. Learn about new products and emerging technologies and set collaborative goals to buy greener materials. For example, concrete and cement contribute to sustainable, resilient buildings because they:
- are most often extracted and manufactured within 100 miles,
- contain recycled materials and are recyclable,
- create durable, long-lasting structures,
- require less finishes and use less energy in buildings, and
- have a light colour which reduces heat island effect.
Lafarge Canada has worked to increase the sustainability of its cement by adding limestone into its mix. This small change leads to a 5 to 10% reduction in carbon, while maintaining competitive quality and price. They are also increasing the sustainability of their organization by investing in emerging technologies around:
- alternative fuels,
- alternative, low-carbon binders,
- collecting and capturing CO2 to be used for other purposes, and
- converting CO2 into other materials through mineralization.
Find out more about the sustainability of cement and concrete in these EPDs:
- Cement Association of Canada (CAC) Cement Industry Average EPD
- Canadian Ready-Mixed Concrete Association (CRMCA) Concrete Industry Average EPD
- Lafarge Richmond Product Specific EPD
Bonus Tip: Carefully review your consultants and designers’ green credentials
Check out Calgary’s green building resources for more information on how to attract and onboard the right team.