对于凯特·西蒙宁（Kate Simonen）和她蓬勃发展的碳碳加人队（Carbon Busters）来说，这是横幅的一年，努力减少建筑生产的负面影响。11月19日，Simonen和她的EC减少冠军首次亮相了第一个计算材料EC的免费数字工具。同一天，加利福尼亚州马林县批准了该国的第一个低碳混凝土建筑法规。在2017年开始缓慢的开局之后，自由结合体现的碳网络终于获得了吸引力。
作为华盛顿大学十年来的碳领导力论坛（CLF）的创始董事，西蒙宁一直在激起所有三个锅。“Kate is our figurehead,” says Wil V. Srubar, a professor of engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and an ECN co-chair with Simonen and Erin McDade, senior program director of Architecture 2030. “It’s been a wild ride the last 12 months, and Kate has been a great driver,” he adds.
EC是从物料提取到工作地点发出的温室气体总和，“是一个确认我们需要完全脱碳的切入点”，建筑物行业 - 不仅仅是运营碳，也不仅仅是运营碳in the university’s department of architecture.
也许Simonen EC-reduction政变是最大的Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator. “EC3 is transformative,” says Ari Frankel, assistant vice president at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, one of six developers piloting EC3.
CLF通过查尔斯·潘科基金会（Charles Pankow Foundation）和其他赞助商的713,000美元赠款孵化EC3。Simonen是Change Labs首席执行官的队友Phil Northcott的首席调查员；Skanska USA可持续发展总监Stacy Smedley；以及Magnusson Klemencic Associates总裁Don Davies。
在孵化EC3的同时，Simonen还通过领导其指导委员会来创建Marin County的低碳混凝土代码（由前25名新闻记者Bruce King）。马林县可持续发展团队的策划人爱丽丝·赞米勒（Alice Zanmiller）说，她在各种利益相关者之间建立共识方面“有工具”。
2017年，CLF创建了ECN来扩大运动。ECN是实践者，教育者，政府官员和物质生产者的全球和虚拟通信平台，正在推动基层变化，包括当地政策计划。
去年，该小组在22个国家的166个城市中增长到1,800名成员。举行面对面研讨会的当地章节在西雅图，纽约市，波士顿和卑诗省温哥华举行。章节讨论正在奥斯汀，亚特兰大，多伦多和丹佛 - 博尔德地区进行。
A native of Livermore, Calif., Simonen studied architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and then received two master’s degrees from the University of California, Berkeley—one in structural engineering and the mechanics of materials in 1991, and the other in architecture the following year.
While in practice, Simonen learned about using fly ash to lower concrete’s cement content. Later, she tried calculating the carbon footprint of green prefab homes imported from China. Eventually, she realized she was interested in research. In 2009, she landed at the university. Soon she had mastered environmental-impact life-cycle analyses for buildings.
Funded by its 42 member firms, CLF is “informing, inspiring and enabling” buildings professionals to reduce and ultimately eliminate EC. Currently, CLF is rallying green-building groups to collaborate and reduce duplicate efforts.
Even with EC-reduction progress, Simonen doesn’t expect to see any meaningful impact on the environment for at least 10 years. Still, she soldiers on, saying, “we have to try to make a difference.”
