ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute is at the forefront of a new program aimed at reducing embodied carbon in the structural engineering industry.
The SEI Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment Program provides structural engineers with the tools and resources necessary to contribute and track projects toward the vision of net-zero embodied carbon structures by 2050.
The program was developed in response to the SE 2050 Challenge, put forth by the Carbon Leadership Forum, that states “All structural engineers shall understand, reduce, and ultimately eliminate embodied carbon in their projects by 2050.”
In response to the CLF challenge, the SEI Sustainability Committee has been developing the first national program focused on structural engineering firm commitments to achieve net-zero embodied carbon structures by the year 2050.
The SE 2050 Commitment Program is broken down into three strategies: plan, implement, and share.
After a structural firm formally signs onto the commitment, it creates an embodied carbon action plan, centered on four main topics: an embodied carbon education plan, a reporting plan, reduction strategies, and advocacy. Firms will then implement their action plan with the support of educational resources and tools accessible through SE2050.org.
Structural firms will input projects’ embodied carbon measurements into the SE 2050 database. After an adequate amount of embodied carbon data has been collected for different regions and building types, embodied carbon benchmarks and reduction targets will be developed.
To learn more about the SE 2050 Commitment Program and see the available embodied carbon resources available to structural engineers, visit SE2050.org.
To join the movement, structural engineering firms can commit at se2050.org/join-the-movement-overview.
