The ILFI-approved embodied carbon threshold goal of 350 kgCO₂e/m² for upfront embodied carbon (life cycle stages A1–A5) originates from averages between the 2030 reduction targets in the following studies: Low Energy Transformation Initiative’s (LETI’s) Defining and Aligning: Whole Life Carbon & Embodied Carbon and Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi’s) A 1.5°C Pathway for the Global Buildings Sector’s Embodied Emissions. If applicable to the project building type and completion date, project teams may opt to meet a disaggregated building typology threshold established in either of these studies in lieu of the ILFI-approved threshold.
Project teams must include the upfront embodied carbon of their primary material assemblies, interior material assemblies, and exterior material assemblies, as shown in Table 8-1. Note that the scope of the ILFI-approved embodied carbon threshold aligns with the LETI and SBTi thresholds save for the inclusion of site materials and the exclusion of MEP and FF&E systems due to data and product constraints. Parking structures included in the project scope may be excluded from the carbon threshold but must meet the primary and exterior materials reduction requirement.
This ILFI-approved embodied carbon threshold averages across a wide range of building types and LCA inputs, yielding a corresponding range of embodied carbon intensities. Consequently, the embodied threshold is attainable for some building types, but may be unreasonable for others. In instances where project teams have exhausted feasible carbon reduction strategies (see Table 7-3) and are still unable to remain below this threshold, teams must provide a narrative documenting their efforts to reduce embodied carbon that details the obstacles preventing the project from meeting the threshold and provide a quantitative analysis of the primary drivers of the project’s total embodied carbon.
This carbon threshold serves as an interim target that keeps pace with best efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, until the industry is aligned on budget-based whole life carbon thresholds, which will ideally factor in allocations based on project density and type, building element, and location. This threshold may be refined in future iterations of ILFI’s standards based on improved data availability, industry alignment, and increasing average global temperatures.
