Less Carbon, More Love for the Planet With the 2030 Challenge for Products
February 2012 | 2030 Challenge for Products
- InterfaceFLOR Commits to the Challenge
- Concrete PCRs Set for Release
- Looking Back on a Great First Year
- Everything You Ever Wanted to Know…
Last Valentine’s Day, Architecture 2030 sent out a Valentine to the Planet, unveiling a new challenge focused on lowering the embodied energy and greenhouse gases of building products. Over the past year, the Building Sector has demonstrated its solid support for the 2030 Challenge for Products and has been instrumental in addressing the issues of embodied carbon on an ever greater scale.
2012 kicks off with a few exciting announcements – and promises to be another big year for the 2030 Challenge for Products.
InterfaceFLOR Commits to the Challenge
Sustainability giant, InterfaceFLOR has chalked up another first, continuing its legacy of leadership in the contract furnishings industry by being the first product manufacturer to adopt the 2030 Challenge for Products. InterfaceFLOR has accepted Architecture 2030’s goal to dramatically reduce the embodied emissions of its flooring products and is well on its way to meeting the reduction targets outlined by the 2030 Challenge for Products.
InterfaceFLOR has also committed to high-level transparency, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its products, and is working towards its own declaration, Mission Zero®. The company intends to be oil-free in the manufacture of its flooring products and achieve zero environmental impact by 2020.
Read the Press release here.
Access EPDs from InterfaceFLOR here.
Concrete Product Category Rules Set for Release
At 3PM PST today, the first U.S. Product Category Rules (PCRs) for Concrete will be released for public comment by the Carbon Leadership Forum. Written to meet the targets of the 2030 Challenge for Products, these PCRs will provide the methodology for calculating the carbon footprint (i.e. the global warming potential) of concrete. Proposed CSI numbers: 03 03X XX (Cast in Place Concrete), 03 4X XX (Precast Concrete), and 03 070 00 (Mass Concrete).
Learn more about the Draft Concrete PCR here.
ECO-STRUCTURE editor, Katie Weeks, sits down with the Director of the 2030 Challenge for Products, Francesca Desmarais, to discuss the Challenge, its impetus, the past year, and the future of the initiative.
Read the article here.
Everything You Wanted to Know…
Questions about the 2030 Challenge for Products? Check out the FAQ section, assembled with insight from leading experts in the fields of LCA and EPDs here.
The Critical Points document is a quick primer on the key points of the Products Challenge – everything you need to know about the 2030 Challenge for Products. Download the pdf here.
As a professional who specifies products, let your product manufactures know that you are concerned about the embodied carbon of their product. Send them an RFI to learn more about their product’s carbon content, while also encouraging carbon reporting and transparency here.
Looking for background on the issues, critical reading or additional resources? Check out the BuildingGreen Information Hub for the 2030 Challenge for Products here.
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Architecture 2030’s mission is to rapidly transform the built environment from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central solution to the climate crisis.