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MEP 2040 Challenge - join as a supporter or signatory

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

October 28, 2021

As you might well remember, one of the Working Groups that came out of the SummitPalooza earlier this year was for MEP Embodied Carbon & Refrigerants. That Working Group began working with the Carbon Leadership Forum and is now excited to announce the rollout of the MEP 2040 Challenge: “All systems engineers shall advocate for and achieve net zero carbon in their projects: operational carbon by 2030 and embodied carbon by 2040.” (also see below "The Challenge" for details). This program is similar to the Architecture 2030 Challenge and the CLF's SE 2050 Challenge, but with a whole life carbon net zero date by 2040. The eventual goal is responding to the "code red" for humanity from IPCC to limit global warming below 1.5 C by 2040.

We will be very grateful if you can help in the following:

1. Consider joining us as supporters, or, if you are an MEP firm, as signatories. When you get to the CLF’s MEP 2040 webpage, be sure and scroll down to see where you can sign on as either a supporter or signatory.

2. Post your participation to your social media channels

3. Send this link: https://carbonleadershipforum.org/mep2040/ to your clients and trade partners, particularly MEP firms that you work with, and ask them to join the Challenge.

We can create a better tomorrow, together.

"The Challenge"

"The Challenge demands more than vague promises by building designers to do better. It requires a set of solid commitments to take specific actions, including reducing refrigerants, requesting data from manufacturers, and becoming active participants in industry-wide efforts to decarbonize building systems." By adopting this Commitment, each firm is confirming that it will:

· Establish a company plan to reduce operational and embodied carbon across MEP systems on all projects, targeting zero by 2040. Measure and report progress against that plan annually.

· Request low-GWP refrigerant availability when designing systems to reduce or eliminate GHG emissions from refrigerants.

· Request Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in project specifications for MEP system components.

· Participate in a quarterly MEP 2040 Forum and a CLF Community discussion group to share lessons learned and contribute to a growing body of knowledge.

Best,

The SummitPalooza MEP Embodied Carbon WG Leaders

Adam McMillen (adam.m.mcmillen@imegcorp.com)
Kristy Walson (kristy.walson@tlc-eng.com)
Luke Leung (luke.leung@som.com)

Post a reply

Kristian Kicinski

Associate Principal / Director of Sustainability

Bassetti Architects

LEEDuser Premium Member

7 thumbs up

Thu, 10/28/2021 - 19:10

I’m very excited about this initiative! If I can make a request: it would be helpful if the website offered some clearer guidance on who should sign as signatory and who signs as supporter. Specifically, architects aren’t mentioned under supporters, and the commitment mentions ‘building designers’ but seems targeted at MEP firms (and your email below says MEP firms), so I was a little confused where we fit. Thanks, Kristian Kristian Kicinski AIA, LEED BD+C Associate Principal / Director of Sustainability (he,him,his) Bassetti Architects o 206 340 9500 / d 206 536 1370 www.bassettiarch.com Need to send me ﬁles? Click here. From: Kim

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Thu, 10/28/2021 - 19:50

Kristian Great question and one our group had conversations on. We are trying to find that sweet spot between getting people's attentions and boring them with details. We sort of came down on the less-TLDR, the better. Trying to be concise, signatories are firms that design MEP systems. Everybody else is a supporter. There are some "architects" that have MEP designers in-house, so they should be signatories, unless they don't want to adhere to all the commitment statements; in which case, they could still be supporters (which would be sad and disappointing). The role of supporters is to provide encouragement (I'm going to pull up short of "pressure") to MEP designers to become signatories. Example, Bassetti Architects signs as a supporter, and proudly displays that fact on their website and corporate branding materials. Acme Engineers (a traditional mouth-breathing slack-jawed bunch of ductolator jockeys) sees that and says, "Hmmm. We better get with the program if we want to keep doing work with those wonderful and much-admired Bassetti folks."

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Thu, 10/28/2021 - 20:16

Or, to put it another way. If the MEP 2040 Challenge were a breakfast of ham and eggs, the signatories would be pigs and the supporters would be chickens. Both are needed to produce the dish, but the pigs are really committed.

Sarah Gudeman

Principal | Practice Lead

BranchPattern

LEEDuser Premium Member

6 thumbs up

Fri, 10/29/2021 - 15:30

Thank you, Kim, for this explanation, call to action, and applicable metaphors. Appreciate the leadership of Adam, Kristy, and Luke also! Go SMEPLs! I suspect some of our future calls or topics needed on this thread will need to include - "how to make the case internally" which I am already volunteering to participate in. More to come there.

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Fri, 10/29/2021 - 18:13

Sarah Thanks for bringing up "how to make the case internally", and that certainly loops in with the discussion of the role of supporters. Let's face it. Most MEP design is coming from firms that aren't members of the SMEPLs. "If our clients aren't asking for it - and willing to pay for it - why would we commit to do it?" If clients (developers, owners, architects, etc) say that they "support" the MEP 2040 Challenge, and ask their MEP consultants to make the commitments, there will certainly be a greater uptake of the Challenge.

Luke Leung

Principal

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Fri, 10/29/2021 - 19:57

Team, The Carbon Leadership team has revised a single unified form to allow people to sign up as either:

MEP firm signing the Commitment
company or organization that is not an MEP signing to support the initiative (architecture, strucuturel, etc.)

Here is the landing page: https://carbonleadershipforum.org/mep2040/ Note also the "Challenge" nature of the signup. Best,
LL

Luke Leung

Principal

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Fri, 10/29/2021 - 20:11

....also..."supporters" can be o Another organization (architect, owner, contractor, equipment supplier)-you are signing to express your support of systems engineers who are engaging the challenge through commitment and action. You will be invited to the quarterly forum and kept abreast of MEP 2040 progress. We will recognize your organization on the MEP 2040 website. o An individual who wants to be kept abreast of the MEP 2040 progress even if you don't belong to an organization that is signing on. Best, LL

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Thu, 11/18/2021 - 15:27

Just a shout-out to Turner Construction for becoming a Supporter of the MEP2040 Challenge - Thanks, Turner!. Now that door has been cracked, are there any other of our SCLs that want to come through and join the party?

Luke Leung

Principal

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Thu, 11/18/2021 - 16:13

Thank you Turner! Thank you Kim!

Jason Hainline

Senior Project Manager

Dake Wells Architecture

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Thu, 11/18/2021 - 17:30

L.O.flippin.L, Kim. This is awesome - the Challenge AND the wit! JASON HAINLINE, AIA, LEED Fellow. design associate DAKE | WELLS architecture office 417.831.9904 www.dake-wells.com

Adam Jennings

Director of Energy & Sustainability

AHA Consulting Engineers

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Mon, 11/29/2021 - 19:23

Hello All, Sounds like a great challange! It was suggested above that individuals can sign on to keep abreast of progress. Is that live? I'm trying to get more details on the data collection and reporting process before getting internal signoff. Looking forward to hearing more details and seeing the progress! Adam

Kim Shinn

Executive Principal and Senior Wizard

TLC Engineering Solutions

LEEDuser Premium Member

62 thumbs up

Mon, 11/29/2021 - 19:40

Adam The signup page is live, but... The Challenge is more oriented toward sign up by organization. If AHA isn't quite ready to be a Signatory (which commits them to the Four Tasks - as I write this, I am reminded of the tasks of Hercules which included mucking out the Augean Stables), you could sign them up for the relatively painless "Supporter" and they would get all the invites and news from the Challenge. As far as the data collection and reporting process, we are still working out those details, but can say that, at this point, the data collection and reporting does not have a centralized host. We are expecting that signatories will track and hold the data internally and will then provide it once we do have a reporting portal. We will not keep the names of the projects or reporting organization connected to the project data.