contractorsCAN

 

Founding partners are joined by a growing number of participating contractors who actively contribute to the development and sharing of contractorCAN’s tools, resources and webinars focused on embodied carbon reduction in the built environment.

 

BACKGROUND

The Carbon Action Network (CAN) is comprised of members of the global building industry that are ready to act on the smart prioritization of embodied carbon in building materials. 

contractorsCAN, a sister program to materialsCAN and ownersCAN, is a coalition of general contractors who share a common goal of decarbonizing building projects through tracking embodied carbon, smart procurement, and efficient construction practices.

The initiative is part of Building Transparency which is a non-profit whose core mission is to provide the open access data and tools necessary to enable broad and swift action across the building industry in addressing embodied carbon's role in climate change. Funding for contractorsCAN, ownersCAN and its sister materialsCAN group comes from Building Transparency's industry partners as well as Breakthrough Energy, Building Transparency's leading philanthropic funder.

The full board for Building Transparency can be found here.

PURPOSE

contractorsCAN aims to:

  • Improve awareness of embodied carbon amongst contractors, trade partners, owners, designers, material manufacturers, and other stakeholders. Facilitate a platform for conversation and collaboration.
  • Identify opportunities for improvement and areas to influence change for the betterment of EC3 and other embodied carbon tools that support accounting for and reducing embodied carbon emissions. 
  • Create resources aimed at supporting contractors with embodied carbon tracking and reduction including case studies, templates, toolkits, and trainings. 
  • Keep abreast of emerging policy/legislation regarding embodied carbon and its influence on the contracting community. 
  • Use collective influence as contractors to advocate and accelerate industry action on embodied carbon. 

MEMBERSHIP

Representatives are from general contracting and construction management firms. 

MEETINGS AND PROCEDURES

Meetings will take place on a monthly basis. In order to promote open communication and best practice sharing, meetings will not be recorded and no notes will be taken or shared by the organizing members. We’ll follow Chatham House rules.

Note: contractorsCAN’s focus is agnostic to the nature of its members’ businesses. All meeting discussions, presentations, and press are about measuring and reducing embodied carbon in buildings and spaces - no business will be discussed.

FOCUS AREAS

  1. Knowledge sharing within the contractorsCAN membership
  2. Awareness building more broadly through a coordinated approach to events and publications
  3. Resource development