Course Description

Buildings account for more than 40% of global carbon emissions. Most of us working on energy efficiency in buildings focus on the carbon associated to powering our houses, with a strong effort going towards reducing energy needed for heating and cooling.  With close to half of those global carbon emissions from buildings are associated to the materials used by the construction industry, more consideration needs to given to both operation and embodied carbon.

Chris Magwood from the Endeavor Centre (Peterborough, Ontario) and the BCIT Zero Energy Buildings Learning Centre (Burnaby) have been collaborating to bring to BCIT’s high-performance building lab low-embodied carbon construction knowledge.

During this two-hour session recorded from both the Burnaby lab and Peterborough, Ontario, participants will:

  • Learn the definition of “embodied carbon”, “carbon negativity” and “biogenic materials”;
  • Review a carbon negative wall assembly perfectly suited for Vancouver’s weather;
  • Review a carbon negative case study for a building built to survive Ontario’s winters;
  • Learn about an online embodied carbon calculator that will simplify the life of builders interested in low embodied carbon assemblies.


Approved for 2.0 CPDs in Construction Technology
Note: If you have already taken this course, repeating it online will not qualify for additional CPD points.


Thank you to our Sponsors:

Presenting Sponsor: FortisBC
Patron Sponsor: BC Housing
Speaker Sponsor: BCIT School of Construction & Environment

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Chapter 1

    • Before You Get Started

    • Agreement to HAVAN Academic Integrity Policy

    • Part 1
  • 2

    Chapter 2

    • Part 2
  • 3

    Chapter 3

    • Part 3
  • 4

    Chapter 4

    • Part 4

    • Feedback

    • Declaration of Completed Work Assignment

Chris Magwood, Endeavor Centre (Ontario)

According to Chris’ LinkedIn profile, he is “obsessed with making the best, most energy efficient and carbon-storing, beautiful and inspiring buildings without wrecking the whole darn planet in the attempt”. Chris is Executive Director of the Endeavor Centre in Peters. The Centre is a not-for-profit sustainable building school, offering full time programs and workshops featuring natural and sustainable building materials and strategies, as well as renewable energy and efficiency techniques and technologies. Chris holders a Masters from Trent University. His thesis, Opportunities for Carbon Capture and Storage in Building Materials, was completed in 2019. https://www.chrismagwood.ca/ Builders for Climate Action: https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/

Alex Hebert, Manager, BCIT Zero Energy Buildings Learning Centre

Alex is a professional engineer with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering (Sherbrooke University). He completed a MBA with a focus in sustainability (UBC). Alex also studied at the School of Economics and Management at the Tsinghua University in Beijing and completed a certificate in Sustainable Energy Management at the BC Institute of technology (BCIT). When Alex joined BCIT (2009) as their first energy manager, both energy consumption and GHG emissions were on the rise. During his time as BCIT’s energy manager, Alex’s team managed to stabilize the increase and to reduce in-scope GHG emissions by 10% (by 50% in a pilot project covering six neighboring buildings on one of the five campuses). Before moving on to a new position as manager of zero emissions buildings, Alex worked directly with BCIT’s president to prepare and provide recommendations on how to reduce GHG emissions by 33% below 2007 levels by 2021 and by 80% below 2007 by 2050. In March 2017, BCIT’s Board of Governors approved a $7M budget to meet the 2021 target. In the last three years of his energy manager mandate, Alex led a team that completed 40 projects, saved BCIT more than $400K per year and attracted more than $4M of new capital. Alex manages the BCIT Zero Energy Buildings Learning Centre (ZEBLC). The ZEBLC provides a full suite of courses that are short and hands-on. The courses are offered at BCIT (at the High Performance Building Lab), on-the-road (with the lab-in-a-box kit) and more recently online (as we adapt to the new COVID-19 reality). He has authored courses such as Decision Making for Energy Manager and Hands-on Introduction to Zero Energy Buildings.