SE 2050 and What It Means for Us
Structural engineers join SE 2050 effort
Our structural engineers—those working on building design projects—have joined the Structural Engineers 2050 Commitment Program, or SE 2050. According to the SE 2050 website , this program is “designed to ensure substantial reductions in embodied carbon in the design and construction of structural systems by the collective structural engineering profession.” So, what does SE 2050 mean for us and, more specifically, for your projects?
To begin with, we know that each client and community has different sustainability goals. The groundwork laid by SE 2050 will allow us to incorporate its guidelines to help meet the wide variety of our building clients’ project requirements. Since SE 2050 is new to us, our initial involvement will focus on benchmarking and exploring alternative practices and materials so we are well-informed and can offer our clients a wide variety of sustainability alternatives.
SE 2050 Requirements and Implementation
One of the initial requirements of SE 2050 is to develop our firm’s Embodied Carbon Action Plan (ECAP) and educate staff in embodied carbon. A big part of the ECAP is tracking the embodied carbon on several of our projects through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA looks at the carbon embodied in structural building materials from harvesting the raw materials through each step of construction and building operations until the building reaches the end of its useful life when the materials are either salvaged, recycled, or put into a landfill.
SE 2050 outlines three areas for firms like ours to collectively participate in learning, practicing, and sharing ways to achieve net zero by 2050:
- Plan – Create an ECAP with staff education and an internal project tracking system.
- Implement – Engage in our clients’ sustainable project goals, pursue low-carbon design, specify low-carbon impact materials, and assess and understand the embodied carbon impact of projects using LCA methods.
- Share – Share embodied carbon data of our structural systems to the SE 2050 central database to help staff and clients understand national trends and develop reduction targets that suit each client’s needs.
Our SE 2050 Action Plan
Morrison-Maierle has an internal group that explores design practices and techniques that can aid our clients and projects in achieving sustainability goals, even net zero. This internal group will share lessons learned and new topics with the wider structural team and be a resource for our team and clients. As a multi-disciplinary engineering firm, we also have structural engineers who design projects for our water, wastewater, transportation, and other projects. These engineering teams will not be impacted by SE 2050 but will have similar sustainability efforts for those types of infrastructure projects.
As we progress through the requirements of SE 2050, we plan to share our success stories and project profiles that have benefited from joining this organization. We encourage you to contact us with any questions and ideas you may have encountered. Morrison-Maierle is committed to providing the best solutions, including ways to reduce embodied carbon and low-carbon building designs.
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