Buildings generate nearly 40% of global carbon pollution through embodied carbon from materials and construction and operational carbon from ongoing energy use. Simultaneously, climate change threatens building durability and habitability through extreme weather events, creating an urgent need for climate-resilient construction. These climate-related challenges are emerging against a major housing shortage in the United States (estimated to be on the order of 3-5 million units). Ensuring the future of building is climate-aligned is critical to both limit warming and prepare for a warmer planet. But current approaches treat housing supply, carbon pollution reduction, and climate resilience as competing priorities, leading to suboptimal outcomes for all three objectives.
This project seeks to understand how regulation and financing affect what is built (building form and material choices) and the integrated impacts on embodied carbon, operational energy consumption, climate resilience, and affordable housing supply.
