Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator

EC3 is a new software tool for specifying low embodied carbon construction materials.  Manufacture of construction materials is extremely carbon-intensive, accounting for up to 80% of a new commercial building's climate impact between now and 2030.  Professionals, Contractors, and Owners need actionable data to make informed decisions about climate impact and performance.   

EC3 is a free, open-source web tool, backed by a comprehensive database of digitized Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).  EC3 was created for a non-profit alliance of AEC firms, manufacturers, foundations, and building owners including the Carbon Leadership Forum, American Institute of Architects, American Institute of Steel Construction, Skanska, Autodesk, Interface, the MKA FoundationCharles Pankow Foundation, ACI FoundationMicrosoft and others.

GWP savings opportunities for tower #3, California, 2017

Scaling Impact, Accelerating Change

Education about sustainabile options is one of the biggest challenges to decarbonizing any sector.   With user-friendly, sector-specific tools to cut down the learning curve, industry change can happen at scale.   We help users visualize complex sustainability data while doing the data acquisition, analysis, and normalization in the background.  We work with sponsors and industry experts to understand, collect, and present the clearest, most actionable data available.  Where data isn't available, we create a series of conservative fallback assumptions that give manufacturers a clear incentive to verifiably disclose the necessary data.  

Open Systems

Tools that interoperate flexibly, securely, and transparently are the product of a growing movement of sustainable technology companies dedicated to creating a new sustainability ecosystem -- an internet of impacts.  Autodesk imports to EC3, the OpenEPD initiative and the open EC3 API are contributions that C Change and our many partners are contributing to the ecosystem.

Carbon Accountability Platform

Sustained action on the climate crisis, like any major industry change, requires accountability.   Accountability underpins the business case for real climate action, and provides daylight to wash away gamesmanship and greenwashing.  We can only reliably manage what we can reliably measure.  

Our company capabilities

Cloud Software

Our solutions are delivered through the web, hosted on our scalable cloud servers.  We update data in hours, fix problems in days, and add features in weeks... not years.  

Climate Impact

Our mantra is 'The Atmosphere is our Client'.  We are relentlessly focused on actual, verifiable climate impact.  We deeply appreciate our sponsors, but their data is never treated differently.

Construction Materials 

We focus on the handful of materials that make up 98% of the embodied climate impact, and dive deep into the unique characteristics and supply chain of those.

Open Ecosystem

No tool or company is the best at every problem; a healthy ecosystem is crucial.  We build interfaces to the major industry tools, collaborate on Open APIs to allow others to access our data, and open-source much of our code.  

User Experience

We believe in teaching computers to understand humans, not the other way around.  We work cosntantly with user groups of professionals to improve, refine, and clarify our interfaces, methods, and data.

User-Driven Software

Everything we do is driven by the input, feedback, and knowledge of our users.   The structural engineers, architects, contractors, and manufacturers on our advisory panels teach us the language and processes of their industries, and we teach the software.  From flexible unit conversions to auxilary allowances to Uniformat,  we teach cloud software the user's language.   Because it's not our tool -- it is yours.  

Embodied Carbon Intensity per unit Area

Market differentiation

EC3 is initially targeted to be a market driver for selecting the low carbon supplier within each material category.  There are significant embodied carbon variances within the harvesting and manufacturing processes of many commodity building materials. By asking for and comparing EC variances at the point of sale, the low carbon suppliers become known and more likely rewarded.

A Surge in Climate Leadership

In 2017, the number of companies with large-scale supplier engagement programs has doubled, with companies such as Apple, BofA, Honda, Nestle, and Unilever emerging as supplier-engagement leaders, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

"There is huge potential for positive impact. Reductions equivalent to 551 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than Brazil’s total emissions in 20163 – were reported by suppliers worldwide in 2017. This is an increase from 434 million metric tonnes reported in 2016. Cost savings amounting to US$14 billion were reported in 2017 as a result of emissions reduction activities." - CDP

Carbon Disclosure Project, cdp.net