Nonprofit Drives Focus on Low-Carbon Procurement in Manufacturing and AEC Industries; Appoints Stacy Smedley as Full-Time Executive Director

Building Transparency, a nonprofit organization that provides open access data and tools to foster a better building future, today announces its latest round of milestones, including a new influx of Pilot Partners and Stacy Smedley joining the organization full-time as Executive Director.

“Our team at Building Transparency feels encouraged to see continued support of our organization and suite of tools and programs from current and new partners,” said Stacy Smedley, Executive Director of Building Transparency. “This growth has enabled our team to continue to invest in and improve upon our offerings to enable widespread climate action in the building industry. I’m thrilled to be able to step into my role as Executive Director in a full-time capacity and continue our commitment to fighting climate change.”

Latest Pilot Partners Support Free and Open Access EC3 Tool

Building Transparency’s latest pilot partners are leaders in the manufacturing and architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sectors committed to material transparency and clean procurement. These companies and organizations are joining the movement, spearheaded by the nonprofit, to address embodied carbon emissions within the built environment sector.

The recent Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction from the UN Environment Programme found that buildings are responsible for 50% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with 20% being attributed to embodied carbon. This report depicts the critical need for companies and the building industry at large to focus on fighting climate change by decarbonizing buildings and specifying low-carbon products and materials.

Building Transparency’s latest partners understand the urgency of the climate crisis and are joining the nonprofit’s efforts to address embodied carbon’s role in climate change, across the construction material industry. They include:

• American Wood Council
• Softwood Lumber Board
• The Tile Council of North America, Inc.
• TK Elevator
• WoodWorks

“It’s more important than ever that organizations invest in material transparency and low-carbon building design processes and procurement with the new Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which includes a variety of stipulations and investments related to clean procurement,” said Stacy Smedley, Executive Director of Building Transparency. “These new Pilot Partners are joining the nationwide effort to decarbonize buildings and make meaningful progress in fighting climate change. Our team at Building Transparency feels encouraged to see this large-scale movement in our sector.”

As partners, these organizations are driving the continued support and development of EC3, a free and easy to use tool that allows benchmarking, assessment, and reductions in embodied carbon and focuses on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials. The partnership enables companies to support material transparency, while also improving carbon accounting efforts to make it easier to set and achieve emission reduction targets for our built spaces.

Stacy Smedley Becomes Full-Time Executive Director

Building Transparency is proud to announce that Stacy Smedley will join the organization as Executive Director full-time. Prior to serving in a full-time capacity, Smedley served in two roles, her position at Building Transparency and as Senior Sustainability Director at Skanska, one of the companies responsible for co-conceiving, funding and piloting the EC3 tool. As Executive Director, she will continue her effort to develop and manage the tools, programs and resources needed to fight global warming.

Smedley was at Skanska for nearly ten years, where she led sustainable initiatives and positioned herself as a subject matter expert in carbon emissions associated with buildings and construction. Skanska remains committed to its role as a lead sponsor of EC3, recognizing the tool is well-positioned to reduce the embodied carbon footprint of our buildings. In addition, Steve Clem, Senior Vice President of Project Planning Services and Head of Green Function at Skanska, will join Building Transparency as a board member and treasurer to continue the company’s strong relationship with the nonprofit.

Learn more about Building Transparency and becoming a Partner at the following link: buildingtransparency.org.

About Building Transparency

Building Transparency is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides open access data and tools that support broad and swift action across the building industry in addressing embodied carbon’s role in climate change. Formed in 2020, Building Transparency hosts, manages and maintains the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, which provides thousands of digitized EPDs in a free, open-source database, and Tally, the nonprofit’s Life Cycle Assessment Tool. Building Transparency strives to provide the resources and education necessary to promote adoption of the EC3 tool, including through the official materialsCAN program, and works with global policymakers to shape a better building future.

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