Author: Benton Johnson, senior structural engineer, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

The construction and operation of buildings accounts for nearly half of all emissions linked to global warming. The building design and construction community has responded to this fact by improving the energy efficiency of buildings and by building with low embodied carbon materials. The structural system is the primary contributor to the overall embodied carbon footprint of a building. This aspect has led designers to explore low embodied carbon structural materials such as mass timber.