NYU Tandon researchers and the Mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice are creating the first embodied carbon benchmarks for New York City. The C2SMART study uses Environmental Product Declarations and lifecycle assessments to establish carbon dioxide equivalent per square foot for various building types. These benchmarks aim to integrate low-carbon material requirements into city procurement and budgeting. By providing a standardized baseline, the city intends to reduce embodied carbon by 50 percent for new buildings and infrastructure projects.
