Back in the late spring of 2023, Toronto became the first city in North America to implement new standards to limit upfront embodied carbon emissions in new municipally owned buildings through the use of lower-carbon construction materials. Mandated for all City buildings (and certain private developments), the standards require that upfront embodied carbon emissions — those generated from material extraction, manufacturing, and the transportation and assembly of structural and envelope systems — be capped at 350 kgCO2e/m2. In response, local architecture firm BDP Quadrangle, which made its own commitment that 100 per cent of its projects would be net-zero carbon–ready with a targeted embodied carbon intensity (ECI) of 250 kgCO2e/m2 by...