Aluminum Extrusions, their Environmental Impact & Strategies for Mitigation
For well over a decade, architects, developers and builders have been 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 greenhouse gas (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 that those materials, it is important to understand how that contribution can by minimized.
This webinar will explore aluminum’s – and specifically aluminum extrusions’ – impact on GHG: what is the source, and more importantly, what strategies can the architect 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 and mitigate the embodied carbon from extrusions in their projects
-
Bennett McEvoy
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Western Extrusions Corp. -
Samuel Medina
Moderator/Executive Editor
The Architect's Newspaper
