Thank you to all who joined the August 20, 2020 public webinar recording from Jeremy Gregory, Executive Director-CSHub, titled “The Role of Concrete in Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions of the U.S.’s Buildings and Pavements.” Gregory ‘s presentation is now available on YouTube:
Click to watch video
Concrete is critical to achieving societal sustainability goals. Its unique attributes make it the most used building material and because of this its environmental footprint is subject to significant scrutiny. Thus, the challenge of sustainable development is manifested in the use of concrete: accomplishing societal goals while minimizing environmental impacts. Concrete is a critical component of deep decarbonization efforts because it impacts the building, transportation, and industrial sectors.
Cell from Video “The Role of Concrete in Life Cycle
Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions”.
Click to enlarge.
This presentation shows results from an effort at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) to contextualize the role of concrete in life cycle greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions of the United States’ buildings and pavements. A bottom-up model of current and future building and pavement stocks and construction in the US is used to analyze GHG reduction strategies under projected and ambitious scenarios, including embodied and use phases of the structures’ life cycle. The presentation shows that projected improvements in the building sector result in a reduction of 47% of GHG emissions in 2050 relative to 2016 levels, whereas ambitious improvements result in a 56% reduction in 2050, which is approximately 1 Gt. The pavements sector shows a larger difference between the two scenarios with a 13% reduction of GHG emissions for projected improvements and a 50% reduction under the ambitious scenario, which is approximately 70 Mt. Over 70% of future emissions from new building and pavement construction are from the use phase.
For videos of all of MIT’s recent webinars on the MIT CSHub You Tube Channel, please go to: https://www.youtube.com/user/cshubMIT
To view the schedule of upcoming FREE webinars and to sign up for e-mail updates, please see posts on the MIT CSHub website: https://cshub.mit.edu/news/public-webinars
MIT CSHub appreciates the wide interest in their work and invite all to share the videos and schedule with friends and colleagues who may also be interested. For questions and more information, please contact:
Andrew Logan, Communications Assistant-MIT CSHub
Website: http://cshub.mit.edu/contact-us/contact-us-0