At the time of this article's publishing, the Doomsday Clock has moved to a historic low…90 seconds before midnight. The clock, “a metaphor for how close humanity is to self-annihilation”, was developed by atomic scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project in the wake of World War II. It is intended to spark difficult conversations about our impact and existence on this planet — including climate change. During the 2022 ASLA Conference, hosted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this past November, the association’s Climate Action Plan was unveiled, looking forward to 2040 with updates in five-year intervals. The plan consists of three overarching goals and six initiatives to achieve those goals. The conference was abuzz with excitement, possibility, and the promise of progress desperately needed in a somewhat out of touch industry that ought to be at the forefront of climate change solutions.
ASLA’s Climate Action Plan aligns with the International Federation of Landscape Architects Climate Action Commitment presented at the UN COP26. Aligned with the “Practice” goal are two key initiatives that we’ll be focusing on – Carbon Drawdown and Climate Resilience. Carbon Drawdown aims to attain zero emissions by 2040 and double carbon sequestration and we'll discuss that in our next blogpost in the series.
"The plan consists of three overarching goals and six initiatives to achieve those goals."
Carbon Drawdown is a catchy phrase tossed around when we discuss climate positive strategies. But what does it mean? In short, carbon removal is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and locking it away for an extended time in organic materials, such as plants, soils, oceans, rocks, or long-lived products like cement. Drawdown, as coined by Paul Hawken, is “the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby halting catastrophic climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible”.
It's important to understand where the current emission sources and sinks come from and acknowledge that lowering our emissions is the most important step to take. “All known and proposed methods of carbon removal are too slow-acting, limited in scope, and/or expensive to offset anything like society’s current carbon dioxide emissions.” The aim is to reduce sources of carbon and increase nature’s carbon “sinks” that store and/or remove carbon.
Carbon is foundational to life on Earth — providing food, fuels, and temperature regulation. Modern human intervention in this closed system by burning fossil fuels, degrading ecosystems, and polluting the ocean rapidly releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and disrupts the balance. Calculating the Lifecycle Emissions of a carbon-based product highlights the real impact of storing, using, and transporting carbon into a quantifiable problem that we must solve.
For this reason, Carbon Drawdown is a three-fold concept. The goal is to combine a reduction in emissions with negative emission technology, or NETs, so that we reach a point where we are reducing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than we annually emit.
One short-term Carbon Capture and Use method is Enhanced Oil Recovery (injecting carbon into tapped out wells to generate more oil) which emits more carbon dioxide than it removes. Long-term methods of Carbon Capture and Storage consist of mechanically collecting carbon from fossil fuel emission and storing them underground in geological reservoirs. While no additional carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, it still does not reduce current levels. Both of these methods encourage the continued burning of fossil fuels long past their operational date, expend money and energy in the redistribution of carbon waste, and slow down governmental efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, the act of storing carbon underground raises concerns about CO2 leakage from pipes and containers, seismic activity, and water pollution.
Carbon Removal from the atmosphere is key to slowing climate change. There are a myriad of ways that we can improve carbon sequestration in practice, through design strategies and material selection. Follow our next blog post on Climate Resiliency for a deeper dive. As an industry, we can also move the marketplace by requesting environmental product declarations, supporting sustainable manufacturers that are transparent about the lifecycle emissions of the product or activity and where they source their materials. We can also educate our clients on being water-wise, supporting existing ecosystems and green infrastructure, and restoring degraded landscapes. It's important that we put our focus towards climate resiliency and soon, because the clock is running out. We know what needs to be done, it's up to us to do the right thing and be proper stewards of this land for our future generations.
Climate Action Plan 2022-2025
Climate Action Field Guide
Drawdown Foundation
AU | Explainer: Carbon Removal
EIA FAQs
AU | Carbon Removal Glossary
Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage (DACCS)
At the time of this article's publishing, the Doomsday Clock has moved to a historic low…90 seconds before midnight. The clock, “a metaphor for how close humanity is to self-annihilation”, was developed by atomic scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project in the wake of World War II. It is intended to spark difficult conversations about our impact and existence on this planet — including climate change. During the 2022 ASLA Conference, hosted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this past November, the association’s Climate Action Plan was unveiled, looking forward to 2040 with updates in five-year intervals. The plan consists of three overarching goals and six initiatives to achieve those goals. The conference was abuzz with excitement, possibility, and the promise of progress desperately needed in a somewhat out of touch industry that ought to be at the forefront of climate change solutions.
ASLA’s Climate Action Plan aligns with the International Federation of Landscape Architects Climate Action Commitment presented at the UN COP26. Aligned with the “Practice” goal are two key initiatives that we’ll be focusing on – Carbon Drawdown and Climate Resilience. Carbon Drawdown aims to attain zero emissions by 2040 and double carbon sequestration and we'll discuss that in our next blogpost in the series.
"The plan consists of three overarching goals and six initiatives to achieve those goals."
Carbon Drawdown is a catchy phrase tossed around when we discuss climate positive strategies. But what does it mean? In short, carbon removal is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and locking it away for an extended time in organic materials, such as plants, soils, oceans, rocks, or long-lived products like cement. Drawdown, as coined by Paul Hawken, is “the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby halting catastrophic climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible”.
It's important to understand where the current emission sources and sinks come from and acknowledge that lowering our emissions is the most important step to take. “All known and proposed methods of carbon removal are too slow-acting, limited in scope, and/or expensive to offset anything like society’s current carbon dioxide emissions.” The aim is to reduce sources of carbon and increase nature’s carbon “sinks” that store and/or remove carbon.
Carbon is foundational to life on Earth — providing food, fuels, and temperature regulation. Modern human intervention in this closed system by burning fossil fuels, degrading ecosystems, and polluting the ocean rapidly releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and disrupts the balance. Calculating the Lifecycle Emissions of a carbon-based product highlights the real impact of storing, using, and transporting carbon into a quantifiable problem that we must solve.
For this reason, Carbon Drawdown is a three-fold concept. The goal is to combine a reduction in emissions with negative emission technology, or NETs, so that we reach a point where we are reducing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than we annually emit.
One short-term Carbon Capture and Use method is Enhanced Oil Recovery (injecting carbon into tapped out wells to generate more oil) which emits more carbon dioxide than it removes. Long-term methods of Carbon Capture and Storage consist of mechanically collecting carbon from fossil fuel emission and storing them underground in geological reservoirs. While no additional carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere, it still does not reduce current levels. Both of these methods encourage the continued burning of fossil fuels long past their operational date, expend money and energy in the redistribution of carbon waste, and slow down governmental efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, the act of storing carbon underground raises concerns about CO2 leakage from pipes and containers, seismic activity, and water pollution.
Carbon Removal from the atmosphere is key to slowing climate change. There are a myriad of ways that we can improve carbon sequestration in practice, through design strategies and material selection. Follow our next blog post on Climate Resiliency for a deeper dive. As an industry, we can also move the marketplace by requesting environmental product declarations, supporting sustainable manufacturers that are transparent about the lifecycle emissions of the product or activity and where they source their materials. We can also educate our clients on being water-wise, supporting existing ecosystems and green infrastructure, and restoring degraded landscapes. It's important that we put our focus towards climate resiliency and soon, because the clock is running out. We know what needs to be done, it's up to us to do the right thing and be proper stewards of this land for our future generations.
Climate Action Plan 2022-2025
Climate Action Field Guide
Drawdown Foundation
AU | Explainer: Carbon Removal
EIA FAQs
AU | Carbon Removal Glossary
Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage (DACCS)
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