Pick up where you left off.
Course Content
Designing for Net-Zero Embodied Carbon: Practical Strategies
The biggest carbon decision on your project is made at concept, long before anyone opens an EPD.
Map where embodied carbon sits on your project and when you can still change it. Read an Environmental Product Declaration with enough rigour to catch what most people miss, compare structural and cladding systems at A1 to A5 against a project carbon target using Australian benchmarks, and challenge the marketing claims most likely to derail your specification.
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4 modules, 2 case studies, final quiz and certificate.
Introduction and objectives
Why client carbon targets, rating tool documentation and product marketing make embodied carbon rigour part of the job now.
Whole-of-Life Carbon
Find where embodied carbon concentrates on your project type, structure, envelope or fit-out, and act while the leverage window is open.
Reading and Applying EPDs
Read the declared unit, stages, GWP, system boundary and validity of an EPD, and know when two EPDs can and cannot be compared.
Evaluating Structural & Cladding Systems
Compare structural and cladding options at A1 to A5 against a stated carbon target, using Australian benchmarks and the concrete mix lever.
Challenging Marketing Claims
Test carbon neutral, recycled content and certified sustainable claims with four questions before they change your specification.
A mid-rise frame and a cladding swap
A Sydney apartment structure brought under target by mix design, and a Melbourne facade substitution stopped by an unverified carbon claim.
Key takeaways
The four practice principles and the documentation trail that makes each carbon decision defensible.
Final quiz and certificate
Ten scenario questions mapped to the four learning objectives. Pass and the certificate goes straight into your dashboard.
Advanced. For architects and building designers already working with embodied carbon who need the rigour to defend a decision. Covers whole-of-life carbon framing, reading and comparing EPDs, A1 to A5 system comparison against a target, and challenging product claims. The NCC sets no mandatory embodied carbon requirement at present, so this is professional practice, not code compliance, and the benchmarks give orientation, not a substitute for a project LCA.
Written for the people who choose the structure, the facade and the products.
Architects
Clients now put carbon targets in the brief, and they expect you to have a method for meeting them.
Building designers
You specify the materials, and a manufacturer’s carbon claim can end up in your documentation.
Structural engineers
Mix design and structural efficiency are often the biggest carbon lever, and they sit on your drawings.
Sustainability consultants
Your rating submission only holds if the EPDs behind it are read and compared correctly.
Builders
Value engineering swaps, transport and site waste land with you, and they move the carbon number.
Where this hour goes on your record.
National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA 2021) performance criteria this course aligns with:
Whole life carbon of materials and systems
Building science to optimise the concept
Embodied carbon across the project lifecycle
Materials and structural systems in detailed design
Selecting materials for whole life carbon impact
| If you are | How it is recorded |
|---|---|
| An architect | 1 formal CPD point in sustainable design and specification. Aligned with NSCA 2021 performance criteria PC10, PC28, PC31, PC39 and PC45. |
| A building designer | 1 CPD point in sustainable design and specification. Your certificate, the learning outcomes, the module outline and your quiz result are kept in your dashboard, so you can show what you studied if your CPD is audited. |
| A structural engineer, sustainability consultant or builder | 1 hour of CPD on embodied carbon, EPDs and lifecycle assessment, recorded on your certificate for your professional body, state scheme or your own records. |
CPD On Demand is not a registered training organisation and courses are not accredited by any registration body. Each course is aligned with the relevant competency frameworks and gives you the records to evidence it. CPD rules differ by registration body and state, so check with yours if you are unsure.
Pairs well with.
AI and Computational Design in Architecture
Test more options at concept, while the carbon leverage is still yours.
From Brief to Concept: De-Risking Project Initiation and Conceptual Design
Getting the carbon target and the structural brief into the project from day one.
Class 2 Apartment Design Compliance for Architects
The mid-rise apartment in the case study, from the compliance side.
Before you enrol.
Make the carbon decision while it still counts, and defend it with the data, in one self-paced hour.
$99, 60 minutes, certificate on completion.