Council Adopts Motion To Regulate Embodied Carbon In The City Of Los Angeles

For Immediate Release: April 10,  2024

Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council adopted a motion introduced by Councilmember Nithya Raman to reduce carbon emissions in the City of Los Angeles by regulating embodied carbon resulting from building construction, as required by the new regulation standards mandated by the California Building Standards Commission set to go into effect on July 1, 2024. While the majority of efforts to regulate carbon emissions from the building industry to date have focused on decarbonizing building operations, including heating, cooling, cooking, and hot water use, comparatively limited focus has been placed on embodied carbon. Councilmember Raman’s motion seeks to implement a framework to limit the embodied carbon associated with construction, and to ensure these restrictions do not present new barriers or higher costs to housing construction in the City of Los Angeles. 

Embodied carbon is defined as the emissions associated with building construction — the material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, and construction processes which account for up to 13% of all CO2 emissions worldwide. The City has already made commitments to reduce building-associated emissions through the C40 program and the Sustainable City pLAn. The Sustainable City pLAn calls for all buildings to be net zero by 2050, while the C40 Clean Construction Declaration commits the City to reducing embodied carbon for major construction by 50% before 2030. 

“In order to take bigger steps on climate change, we have to move beyond the low-hanging fruit, and looking at how to reduce carbon in buildings without making it harder to build is an important next step,” said Councilmember Raman. “This motion is part of a greater effort across the country to implement net-zero building requirements and will help the City comply with upcoming state requirements, giving us the tools to think through how we can take every step possible to get us to a greener city.”

Councilmember Raman’s motion instructs the Department of Building and Safety, in consultation with the City Attorney, the Los Angeles Housing Department, the Department of City Planning, the Department of Water and Power, and the Climate Emergency Mobilization Office as necessary, to report back within 180 days with recommendations for updating the Los Angeles Green Building Code to create a framework that sets limits on the embodied carbon allowed for new construction and major additions to buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, in consultation with stakeholders and industry experts. 

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