Building a net-zero future in Boston
Opening in 2023, Boston University’s new Computing & Data Sciences Center is essential to meeting the university’s climate action plan of net-zero emissions by 2040. Designed by KPMB Architects to attain LEED Platinum status, the 32,516-m2 (350,000-sf) facility will be the largest carbon-neutral building in Boston.
With sustainability being a high priority, structural engineering firms LeMessurier of Boston, Massachusetts, and Entuitive of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, selected an eco-friendly concrete option. The concrete will reduce the building’s carbon footprint while attaining the best possible balance in meeting constructability and structural performance goals.
In the placement of the massive foundation alone, the eco-friendly concrete using SCMs provided emission savings, totaling 350,000 kg (771,617 lb) of CO2 reductions. Further, the innovative mix design offered the university a 30 percent reduction in CO2 emissions in comparison to traditional concrete.
Conclusion
The way buildings are constructed and managed will have a significant impact on mitigating current and subsequent climate change for many decades to come. It is important to preserve today’s infrastructure with more resilient and disaster-resistant structures, while building a better future by decarbonizing the built environment to curb global warming.
Cement is a crucial component in concrete, but it has a big footprint when it comes to emissions. Reducing the amount of Portland cement in concrete with alternative materials and other mix design strategies will lower the carbon intensity of concrete without hindering its structural performance. Often, the best approach is to move from a prescriptive-based specification to a performance-based specification. This allows concrete suppliers to optimize their designs to meet the specified performance requirements, avoiding unnecessary criteria, and optimizing the cement content of the concrete mix. Performance-based specifications generally result in more sustainable products being used, providing a greater value to all industry stakeholders.
Notes
1 Consult the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
2 Refer to “Achieving Net Zero Embodied Carbon in Structural Materials by 2050,” Structural Engineering Institute’s Sustainability Committee Carbon Working Group, 2020.
Authors
David Diedrick is the quality general manager of sales, North Central Region, for U.S. Cement at Holcim. He can be reached by email at dave.diedrick@holcim.com.
Cecile Roman is the innovation and sustainability manager for U.S. ready-mix concrete at Holcim. She can be reached by email at cecile.roman@holcim.com.
The photo caption to this story has incorrect information: the project One Dalton is located in Boston, Massachusetts – not Washington DC and it is LEED certified Silver, not platinum.
Thanks a lot for pointing that out. We have modified the caption of the photo.