Pankow Foundation releases report, tools for embodied carbon impacts

The Charles Pankow Foundation has released a study and tools to calculate embodied carbon impacts on building interior work.

The documents focus on Mechanical - Electrical - Plumbing (MEP) and Tenant Improvements (TI). “The recurring nature of MEP and TI installments are important to consider, especially in the context of the full building lifespan,” according to a Pankow Foundation news release.

“MEP and TI are often replaced every 10 to 20 years, and the accumulated impacts can be significant,” the release says. The report summarizes the study results, compares findings with other benchmark studies, and discusses their implications.

It estimates ranges of material quantities consumed and environmental impacts attributed to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, and to finishes, furniture, and fixtures.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.