Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency (CASR) is launching its first Embodied Carbon Pilot Program! We hope lessons learned from this pilot will help the city meet its climate goals and to be a leader in lowering the embodied carbon in its building stock.
As part of the pilot program, Denver is providing project support and funding for new commercial building projects. Denver will be involved with the projects throughout design and construction to:
- Provide support
- Collect local market data
- Understand local embodied carbon intensities
- Understand design and construction challenges
- Evaluate the cost of constructing lower embodied carbon buildings
We designed this pilot program with input from the building industry, including designers, contractors, and sustainability consultants.
Start Your Application
Project Eligibility
Building projects must meet the following eligibility criteria:
- Must be located in the City and County of Denver
- Must be a new commercial construction project
- Project must be planned at a minimum of 25,000 square feet
- Projects must apply during the Schematic Design Phase
- Projects may still be considered if applying during the Design Development Phase. To do this, they must have already met the Schematic Design criteria outlined in Part 2 of the Program Guidebook.
Considerations
This program will highlight and explore project types and design practices that are representative of local conditions. The program will also consider innovation possibilities in Denver. To achieve this, we are seeking a diverse set of building projects for this pilot. Denver will evaluate project applications based on the following considerations:
- Construction delivery method
- Building structural and facade material type
- Building use
- Embodied carbon reduction potential
- Cost effectiveness of identified embodied carbon reduction methodology
- Project team experience with embodied carbon reporting such as:
- Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) collection
- Whole Building Life Cycle Assessments (WBLCA)
- Innovation
- Equity Priority Buildings (EPB) qualification
The application period will be open from November 3, 2025-December 2, 2025. Program interviews will take place if needed to determine program awardees.
To apply to the Pilot Program, applicants will submit an application online. Each project will need to submit a W-9 and Certificate of Good Standing with their initial application.
If chosen, the program applicant will be the person/company awarded the contract and funding. Please coordinate with your team ahead of time to determine the appropriate person to complete the application.
Timeline
- The application period will be open from November 3, 2025-December 2, 2025
- Project reviews and interviews will take place between December 2-18, 2025
- Project awardees are expected to be notified by December 19, 2025
- Contracts will be finalized, and project coordination will begin the week of January 5, 2026
We developed The Embodied Carbon Pilot Program Guidebook to provide project applicants and participants clear expectations on how to participate in the program.
The Guidebook draft is available to download below:
Download the Draft Guidebook(PDF, 2MB)
The Guidebook will be finalized by the start of project coordination. As the Guidebook is being finalized, feel free to reach out with any questions or recommended modifications to McKenzie Glass at mckenzie.glass@denvergov.org.
Part 1 of this guidebook introduces this pilot program. It offers the following:
- Background and context of embodied carbon in Denver
- Current and potential actions to reduce buildings’ embodied carbon and the role that this pilot program is intended to play in guiding those activities
- Project eligibility requirements and expectations
Part 2 of this guidebook provides further program details and deliverables. It describes the following:
- Framework and parameters through which projects are expected to meet program criteria
- Project timelines, data collection and reporting processes, guidance for working with program administrators, and deliverable requirements
- Expectations and requirements for submitting deliverables for both the materials-based and the building-level approaches of this program
- Demonstration of material intensity reductions through the submission of environmental product declarations (EPDs) and meeting a project embodied carbon intensity limit as demonstrated by a whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA)
- Additional embodied carbon reduction strategies eligible for further funding opportunities
- Terminology definitions and supplementary references
A building’s life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are comprised of operational carbon and embodied carbon. Operational carbon emissions result from the on-site electricity and natural gas (gas) consumption required to operate buildings and homes. Embodied carbon is generated from the materials used to build structures and includes:
- Material extraction
- Manufacturing
- Transportation
- Building construction
- Maintenance
- Demolition or deconstruction
- Disposal
Buildings are responsible for about 60% of Denver’s carbon emissions. Globally, materials used in the construction of buildings represent about 7% of total global GHG emissions.
Historically, carbon reduction projects and policies have focused on operational energy. As these programs and policies continue to reduce operational carbon emissions, embodied carbon will continue to become a larger share of buildings’ carbon footprint.
In 2021, Denver completed an Embodied Carbon Emissions report(PDF, 3MB). The report looked to understand the impact of embodied carbon in Denver and make recommendations on ways to reduce it. The report highlights the urgent need to address embodied carbon emissions. If Denver meets its goal for all buildings and homes achieving zero emissions by 2040, operational carbon emissions will disappear. Embodied carbon will become 100% of Denver’s building emissions.
The 2021 report identified recommendations for priority actions to reduce Denver’s embodied carbon. These included:
- Promoting the reuse and repurposing of existing buildings and salvaged building materials in new construction
- Understanding which materials contribute the most to emissions and limiting their use
- Requiring transparent product documentation to help decide which low-carbon materials to use
- Avoiding over-engineering building designs to reduce the use of structural materials, including concrete, steel, and wood
- Involving structural engineers early, as the greatest amount of embodied carbon is emitted from the building’s structural system
- Considering the end-of-life use of salvaged materials and buildings
Denver is working to understand the current state of building practices and their impact on Denver’s embodied emissions. As part of this initiative, Denver established a baseline for measuring embodied carbon today and for tracking progress moving forward. This pilot will inform and validate this baseline. It will help us understand the benefits and barriers to reducing embodied carbon in new commercial buildings.