Recap of CAGBC’s National Embodied Carbon Summit 2025
80 industry gather to discuss how to chart a path forward on embodied carbon reductions.
In June 2025, the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) reconvened a group of industry leaders for its National Embodied Carbon Summit with the goal of determining how national progress can be made in reducing embodied carbon in buildings.
The focus of this event was to build on the work of the first Summit, held in June 2024. The group’s findings were released in Reducing Embodied Carbon in Canada’s Buildings, which focused on identifying industry knowledge gaps, addressing barriers, and charting a path forward for reductions.
Following that report, CAGBC members committed to reconvening to discuss progress and advance priorities and action. The goal of the second summit was to identify the next steps and milestones, suggest responsibility, and determine frameworks. This recap identifies the key findings from that day in preparation for a third National Summit to be held at CAGBC’s annual conference, Building Lasting Change.
Discussions at the Summit explored:
- What’s needed to establish a National whole building Life Cycle Assessment (wbLCA) results database?
- How can we ensure all wbLCA software tools align on default modelling assumptions and relevant data to produce consistent and comparable results?
- What’s needed to implement a harmonized wbLCA framework for Canada?
- Embodied carbon in the national code: what guidance can we provide and how do we address objections to adoption?
- How can we facilitate the collection and use of costing data for low carbon materials/products and design.
- How to proactively drive increased awareness and understanding amongst industry stakeholders, not just of the importance of embodied carbon but that solutions are achievable.
- How to ensure all impacted professionals have sufficient knowledge, clarity of roles and responsibilities, and resources to effect reductions in embodied carbon.
Sponsors
CAGBC thanks all Sponsors, Planning Committee, and Participants, who together made the event successful through their enthusiastic participation.
You may also enjoy
- Embodied Carbon: A primer for buildings in Canada: Provides the building sector with the information needed to understand embodied carbon and address it in new and existing buildings.
- Reducing Embodied Carbon in Canada’s Buildings: Provides a summary of the discussions and deliberations that took place at the inaugural National Embodied Carbon Summit, hosted by the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) on June 4, 2024.
- Embodied Carbon Harmonization and Optimization (ECHO) Project : CAGBC is part of a coalition of non-profit organizations working to standardize embodied carbon emissions reporting.