Aluminum Extrusions and the Challenge of Decarbonization

Earn 1 AIA HSW LU.

Aluminum extrusions – and extrusion-based products – have long been oft-specified components for commercial building. Today, however, architects and specifiers are being increasingly challenged to balance the use of aluminum-based components with the imperative of Greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction. Whether the focus is on reducing operational carbon to achieve net-zero buildings, or on reducing embodied carbon, architects, developers, and builders are focused on reducing the carbon footprint of their projects. Through a combination of site-generated energy, highly energy-efficient building systems, and creative design, net-zero buildings have become not only feasible but also practical.

But net-zero doesn’t fully address a facility’s carbon footprint, and now the AEC community is increasingly focused on embodied carbon – the GHG emissions that result from the manufacture, transport, installation and eventual disposition of the building materials employed in those projects.

Aluminum is regarded as the third most significant source of GHG emissions in the construction industry, trailing concrete and steel. And while aluminum’s GHG contribution is significantly less than those materials, it is important to understand how aluminum’s GHG contribution can by minimized.

This webinar will explore aluminum’s – and specifically aluminum extrusions’ – impact on GHG: what drives GHG, and what strategies the architect can employ to minimize that impact – both relative to embodied carbon and to operational aspects of the building.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the key drivers of aluminum extrusions’ embodied carbon
• Assess the most recent EPD data for aluminum extrusions
• Analyze trade-offs between various extrusion characteristics and finishes
• Employ strategies to minimize the embodied carbon from extrusions in their projects
• Assess extrusions’ contributions in reducing operational carbon.