From the production of original research to the influence of multi-level policies, CNCA’s strategic focus is people-centered and spans the ecosystem of cities and industry stakeholders to dramatically decarbonize the built environment across geographies.
Updated: 2024
Year Completed: 2023
Developed by One Click LCA in partnership with CNCA. It suggests the key characteristics of such a policy as well as technical guidance on how the assessments should be undertaken.
Read the Report
Year Completed: 2024
A new guide and workbook for applying justice principles to materials resource management, new construction, and alternatives to demolition.
Embodying Justice in the Built Environment: Circularity In Practice explores justice principles and provides a framework for centering justice in embodied carbon policies and planning. Exploratory questions, designed as a workbook, guide the user through a process which centers meaningful community engagement in considering social, economic, and labor impacts and opportunities rooted in an understanding of the local historical context.
Created by researchers in the Just Places Lab, Reparative Praxis Lab, and Circular Construction Lab at Cornell University in partnership with the Susan Christopherson Center for Community Planning and the Circularity, Reuse, and the Zero Waste Development (CR0WD) Network.
Year Completed: 2024
CNCA & Arup offer cities a practicable guide to purchasing bio-based and low-carbon materials.
Read More
Free certification: Life cycle, biobased materials & circularity in construction.
Available Now.
As of 2023, CNCA and One Click LCA offer free certificate course available online for city officials on life cycle analysis, biobased materials and circularity in construction.
Learn More
Year Completed: 2024
25 recommendations carried by a national coalition in France.
(In French)
Year Completed: 2023
Step-by-step guide for Spanish cities.
(Introduction in English. Guide in Spanish)
Year Completed: 2023
City: Lund
Year Completed: 2023
CNCA provides a grant to Lund to establish clear procedures for the city administration to facilitate re-use inventory in connection with maintenance, renovation, and demolition.
Read the Guide
City: Glasgow
Year Completed: 2023
CNCA provides a grant to Glasgow to provide the information and support necessary for the city to consider the introduction of an embodied carbon measurement and reduction policy in the future for buildings in the city.
Read Report
City: Stockholm
Year Completed: 2022
CNCA provides a grant to Stockholm to research climate effects from the reuse of building products, interiors, and furniture, as well as for identifying which products could be suitable for reuse based on their climate effect and current common flows in Sweden.
Report available in Swedish (with executive summary in English).
Access the Report
Year Completed: 2022
Year Completed: 2022
Overview from the technical assessments addressed to the 12 cities participating in the project reviewing laws impacting embodied carbon and bio-based and identifying levers for action.
Read More
Year Completed: 2022
Key action proposals from 12 European cities.
Read More
Year Completed: 2020
Embodied Carbon—the emissions released from materials during the construction of buildings and infrastructure—will be responsible for half of the carbon footprint of new structures between now and 2050. It is a substantial source of carbon emissions in cities that can be dramatically reduced through the legal and regulatory powers of zoning and land use policies. Some leading cities around the world have already begun to adopt and apply these policies, but for climate goals to be met, global implementation needs to be accelerated.
This framework provides guidance for cities considering policies that can deliver the highest impact within their geopolitical contexts and regulatory systems. Over 50 existing policies from leading cities have been evaluated, categorized, and scored according to their potential, cost efficiency, ease of implementation, and enforceability.
For more information:
