King - New carbon architecture: building to cool the climate

Praise for
The New Carbon Architecture

Truly, what a fantastic, timely, important book!

Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest and Drawdown

I cannot overstate the importance of Bruce Kings book at this critical time. We know that in order to effectively address climate change, we must go beyond building operations and address embodied carbon phasing out carbon emissions in building materials and construction by mid-century; this book illustrates how.

Edward Mazria, Founder / CEO Architecture 2030

That same carbon atom thats wreaking havoc in the atmosphere is a building block for many great traditional and new building materials. The New Carbon Architecture shows us how in ways that are both practical and imaginative truly a resource for our times.

Nadav Malin, President, BuildingGreen, Inc.

Bruce King provides a valuable and unique reference for understanding how one-fifth of all carbon emissions from buildings are currently not being counted or even comprehended. Understanding embodied energy and incorporating it into design thinking and product development is the next frontier for green building practice. I recommend this book as a primer for anyone interested in combatting global climate change via building science.

Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED Fellow
The Godfather of Green Wired Magazine
Author/Keynote Speaker/Sustainability Consultant

In The New Carbon Architecture, Bruce King delivers an emergent template for designing buildings in a future of climate uncertainty. The climate clock is ticking and we urgently need the ideas King and his colleagues present if we are to ensure comfort, safety, and resiliency in our next-gen built environment. The litany of no regrets practices King offers provides both adaptation and mitigation benefits in an industry not well known for offering either.

David A. Schaller, retired EPA climate and sustainability coordinator

Bruce King and his crew of knowledgeable, enthusiastic authors have given us a great starting point for designing and (re-)creating our built environment. This is an important book for the entire design industry to read; from industrial designers and chemists to natural building craftspeople. It gives us all a starting point for the transformation of our infrastructure into one that is truly sustainable and healthy while reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by simply using them as building blocks instead of emitting them. All this, and they show us that we can have fun doing it!

Tim Krahn, P. Eng., Structural Engineer, Building Alternatives Inc

Copyright 2017 by Bruce King.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Central cover image supplied by author.

Torn paper window iStock

All text, photos and illustrations are by Bruce King unless otherwise noted.

Printed in Canada. First printing October 2017.

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of The New Carbon Architecture should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

(250) 247-9737

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

King, Bruce (Structural engineer), author

The new carbon architecture : building to cool the climate / Bruce King.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-86571-868-5 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-55092-661-3 (PDF).-

ISBN 978-1-77142-256-7 (EPUB)

1. Sustainable architecture. 2. Sustainable buildings--Design and construction.

3. Dwellings--Environmental engineering. 4. Building materials--Environmental aspects. I. Title.

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision.

T HIS BOOK is a project of the non-profit Ecological Building Network, or EBNet, which has been developing and promoting healthy, low-carbon building for 20 years. ecobuildnetwork.org

... in collaboration with the Embodied Carbon Network, which was convened in 2016 to provide a mechanism for individuals and firms to connect, conduct research, and promote awareness of embodied carbon in the built environment.

carbonleadershipforum.org/embodied-carbon-network

O NE CAN ASK what might it take to have an agriculture that does not degrade the soils, a fishery that does not deplete the ocean, a forestry that keeps watersheds and ecosystems intact, population policies that respect human sexuality and personality while holding numbers down, and energy policies that do not set off fierce little wars... We know that science and the arts can be allies. We need far more women in politics. We need a religious view that embraces nature and does not fear science; business leaders who know and accept ecological and spiritual limits; political leaders who have spent time working in schools, factories or farms, and maybe a few who still write poems. We need intellectual and academic leaders who have studied both history and ecology and who like to dance and cook. But what we ultimately need most are human beings who love the world.

Gary Snyder, Back on the Fire 2007

All text, photos and illustrations are by Bruce King unless noted otherwise.

Emissions Now Hurt More than Emissions Later:
The Relative Importance of Embodied Carbon

The Scale of the Plastics Problem:
How Much Is Already Out There?

From Obstacles to Opportunities to Solutions:
Can We Redeem Plastic?

Carbon-plastic Composites:
Can We Put New Carbon into Old Plastic?

F IRST AND FOREMOST, profound thanks to the contributing authors to this book for your many years of largely unrewarded and unappreciated work in this emerging field, and then for taking the time to provide your piece of this whole. The world is made better for your work. A particular shout-out to:

Ann Edminster for herding so many kitties, of both the human and conceptual kind, in defining and moving toward true net-zero architecture;

Ed Mazria for your tireless and effective work in alerting the world and our profession to the perils and promise of the built environment;

Kate Simonen for establishing, energizing, and guiding the Carbon Leadership Forum and its spinoff Embodied Carbon Network, and

Larry Strain for your untiring service and constant quiet leadership.

Many, many others have helped, directly and indirectly, in creating this book and in fostering and leading the emerging sciences of Life Cycle Analysis, Embodied Carbon, Biomimicry, just better building, and of course climate science itself. Thank you to: