Upfront Carbon in the Building Envelope Design Process

Designing high performance building envelopes is an essential component in the low carbon building design process. Traditionally, building envelopes are selected based on aesthetics, costs, and impacts on energy use. However, building envelopes can be responsible for large amounts of upfront carbon emissions. Entire lifecycle approaches to building design should incorporate implications of both operational and embodied carbon when selecting envelope systems. 

In this event, our speakers will provide insights on embodied carbon in building envelopes, and provide input on ways to approach building envelope design and construction from a whole-building lifecycle carbon perspective. 

Meet Our Speakers:

Kelsey Saunders, Building Scientist, RDH - Kelsey Saunders is a Project Manager and Building Scientist at RDH Building Science and has been in the building science field for nearly 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Architectural Science and a Master of Building Science degree from Toronto Metropolitan University. She is a Certified Passive House Designer and a LEED AP in Building Design and Construction. Kelsey’s work is focused on early stage building enclosure consulting on new construction projects across North America with a particular specialty in low carbon buildings both in terms of operational and embodied carbon. She takes an enclosure-first approach to low carbon design and has worked on many Passive House, Net Zero Carbon, mass timber, and prefabricated panelized enclosure projects.

Scott R Armstrong, Senior Facade Specialist, WSP - Scott is passionate about buildings: their design and construction, ongoing performance, deterioration and failure, and, ultimately, their renewal. His projects have spanned commercial, institutional, heritage, recreational, residential, and neighbourhood development in Canada, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. A LEED Accredited Professional, past Secretary and Board member of the CaGBC Greater Toronto Chapter, a Building Science Specialist (BSS), and Certified Engineering Technologist (CET), Scott successfully bridges the traditional gap between Architectural and Engineering disciplines and is frequently invited to speak publicly on topics such as enclosure design, high performance building design, and existing building retrofits.