FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OTTAWA, July 18, 2024 – Assessing embodied carbon impacts throughout a building’s life cycle is a necessary step in a shift towards regenerative and lower carbon design. The Canadian built environment is the third-highest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and there is an urgent and critical need to accelerate the knowledge, skills and competencies of professionals who design Canada’s buildings.
To address this need, the RAIC is partnering with the National Research Council of Canada in a one-year rapid-deployment project to train members of the Canadian architectural community through a high quality, hands-on case study-based Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) curriculum.
Whole building LCA provides an estimate of the total GHG emissions associated with a building. This includes emissions due to operations and those associated with the extraction, manufacturing, transport, installation, replacement, and the end of service life for products and materials used in a building, which constitute a significant proportion of a building’s whole life carbon emissions.
The RAIC is proud to collaborate with Ha/f Climate Design to organize the in-person training workshops, on LCA sessions for practicing industry professionals. Following a theory-based lecture on LCA, embodied carbon, and related methodologies, participants will engage in a hands-on workshop, learning the basics of how to perform an assessment in a small group. The workshops will be held between September 2024 and May 2025 in various locations across Canada including Ottawa, Toronto, Saint Andrews, Winnipeg, Regina, Vancouver, Calgary, Halifax and Montreal. An online option will also be available.
“As architects, it is our responsibility to build and design with environmental leadership as an underpinning value and principle. Focused on our purpose to create a better world for all, this partnership with the National Research Council of Canada is one step in the right direction for the building sector to decarbonize at rapid scale and to accelerate the pace of climate action needed for Canada to achieve its 2030 and 2050 targets,” states Jason Robbins, FRAIC, past President of the RAIC.
This workshop, hosted by the RAIC and available to the larger community, is designed for architectural professionals (licensed architects, interns, technologists, students, etc.) who want to learn about Life Cycle Assessment and how to reduce embodied carbon in real-life projects.
Participants will leave the session with knowledge of definitions, methods, targets and standards as well as having the opportunity to practice with LCA software to implement into practice. Learn more and register today.
Contact: Giovanna Boniface, Chief Commercial Officer, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
Email: communications@raic.org
