Hines’ South Station tower under construction. Traditional commercial building materials such as steel and concrete are drawing scrutiny from regulators as a potential contributor to the building sector’s carbon footprint. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff

Is another sustainability regulation coming down the line for Boston developers? 

Developers and building owners are already familiar with Boston’s BERDO ordinance, which requires existing buildings of more than 15 residential units or more than 20,000 square feet to eventually achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.  

But even the greenest buildings by existing standards already leave a hefty carbon footprint before they even wrap construction. That could eventually change.  

Embodied carbon, the emissions that come from building products, is emerging as the next frontier for promoting sustainability in the development sector. The Boston Planning & Development Agency held several advisory meetings on the subject in 2021 and is evaluating various ways to reduce embodied carbon emissions from future development. 

Construction materials account for roughly 9 percent of all energy-related carbon emissions, according to United Nations 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. Roughly half the total carbon emissions from a “high-performance building” are from the building materials, according to a public BPDA draft issued following the series of embodied carbon sessions. 

Cement, steel and insulation are believed to be some of the biggest sources of embodied carbon in the construction sector. Some potential changes in future development could be to use lower-carbon materials such as mass timber or even low-carbon concrete.  

And the American Institute of Architects recommends other steps to reduce embodied carbon such as reusing existing buildings instead of building new ones, maximizing structural efficiency and using high-recycled content materials.  

A Map for Navigating Carbon Footprints 

So, is this yet another regulation for developers to worry about in an already high-cost construction environment? Perhaps, but it’s likely to take a while for a full rollout of an embodied carbon initiative to take place. 

“I think the first thing you’re going to see from a regulatory perspective is to ask for volunteer reporting from projects for these things,” said Chris Hardy, a senior associate and landscape architect at Sasaki. “That’s going to lay a groundwork to normalize those discussions first, which is going to take a few years to do.” 

Sasaki launched earlier this month Carbon Conscience 2.0, a carbon benchmarking tool for designers to better set emissions goals earlier in a project’s design phase. The latest version of the tool includes an overhauled landscape architecture dataset that can assist with decarbonizing design – another key factor in achieving net zero emissions. 

A cement kiln in operation. Experts say regulation of the carbon dioxide generated by the production of concrete and steel will come, but is still some time off. iStock illustration

Even though BERDO addresses the operational efficiency of existing building stock rather than embodied carbon from planning and development, others in the region’s development orbit say some of the same goals associated with BERDO can address embodied carbon in the construction and development process.  

“We have a lot of net-zero goals, and you don’t get to net zero without addressing embodied carbon,” said Timothy Moore, a manager with the Urban Land Institute’s Boston/New England chapter. “What a lot of our member organizations are doing is they’re addressing it from the get-go.” 

Industry Fears Costs 

Developers remain concerned about new environment regulations adding more time and cost to projects that already face difficulties penciling out in a high interest rate and inflationary project cost environment. At the national level, the Biden administration faced pushback earlier this year from companies claiming environmental disclosure rules are too expensive, the Washington Post reported in May.  

That doesn’t have to be the case with offsetting embodied carbon in the development process, those interviewed for this story say. 

Mass timber can even lower the cost of a project thanks to it being cheaper than steel or concrete. There could even be new industries born from the push, as Maine pulpwood could eventually give rise to more environmentally friendly wood-fiber insulation over the current foam insulation with higher embodied carbon.  

“Once we have the right tools in place, it’s actually not that hard to do these things because we’re using intelligent software,” Hardy said of avoiding higher costs amid the push to develop greener projects. “If we can start to figure out how to bring back those kinds of vernacular traditions — local-sourcing materials, reconsidering our footprint, and how much space we’re occupying for different programs – decarbonization can happen in a way that’s not just a cost-add.”