ABSTRACT
It is commonly known that the structural materials included in building construction contribute significantly to global emissions due to the associated carbon required with their extraction, production, and transportation. The most common structural materials, concrete and steel, can also have the greatest impact in part due to their high volume of usage. However, with requirements of fire protection, vibration, seismic detailing and constraints of constructability, it is not feasible to simply eliminate all concrete and steel from our buildings. Instead, structural engineers can look to make intelligent replacements of carbon-intensive materials with low carbon, fiber-based materials such as timber. In this way, engineers can make noticeable reductions in buildings immediately and not wait until codes catch up with new structural systems. This topic has been explored by the authors with a variety of materials and geometries. Recently the authors designed a built hybrid mass timber and steel structure in a height seismic zone. In each case the use of timber is expanded and therefore overall embodied carbon incrementally reduced.
