Earth Overshoot Day: First the Bad News, Then the Good

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

Today, July 28, 2022, officially marks the date when humanity has consumed all the biological resources the earth can generate this year. If the whole planet used as many resources as the United States, that date would have fallen on March 13 this year. Ouch.

This news is essential for building materials producers and users—architects and interior designers—since the built environment is responsible for generating nearly 50% of annual CO2 emissions. Double ouch!

According to Architecture2030.org, which sourced its data from the 2018 Global ABS Global Status Report and the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “Of those total emissions, building operations are responsible for 27% annually, while building materials and construction (typically referred to as embodied carbon) are responsible for an additional 20% annually.”

ClimatePositiveNOW.org tells the story of the only building materials that are already Climate Positive right NOW: composite wood panels. MDF, particleboard, hardboard, and compact laminates store more carbon than is released in their production and use, reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Also from the same data sources, “Just three materials  – concrete, steel, and aluminum – are responsible for 23% of total global emissions (most of this used in the built environment).”

Here’s where the good news comes in.

“There is incredible opportunity for embodied carbon reduction in these high-impact materials through policy, design, material selection, and specification.”

Architecture 2030’s “Embodied Carbon Actions” include “material optimization and the specification of low to zero carbon materials.”

If you want to #MoveTheDate for Earth Overshoot Day, specifying Climate Positive building materials is a powerful step in the right direction.