Construction Innovations: Carbon Footprint, and Net Zero
/Sustainability research conducted by Paul Gallardo from Cardiff University under my mentorship during his internship semester at Clark Construction in the Fall of 2019.
During the first half of my internship at Clark, my primary role has involved carrying out research and analysis into construction and demolition (C&D) waste, along with the carbon impact associated with this. The investigation looks at Clark's C&D waste data through a recently developed software tool called WARM. "EPA created the Waste Reduction Model (WARM) to help solid waste planners and organizations track and voluntarily report greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, energy savings, and economic impacts from several different waste management practices."
Ultimately, I am helping the Clark Sustainability Department evaluate how tax savings can be attained by recycling in different projects to be calculated. This information could then be analyzed to find trends in these savings across the projects. This information will be presented in a memo that I am developing that will ultimately provide a recommended action based on my findings.
Apart from this, I have also taken part in various other tasks, such as taking part in LEED job site visits and sitting into LEED monthly internal check-ins via Bluejeans. Taking part in these meetings has allowed me to learn a lot about how the sustainability department operates and what their primary tasks include.
In the past week, we visited the National Air and Space Museum revitalization project. For me, this was an exciting visit because of the significance of the actual building. We also got to climb my first construction tower crane -- such great views of DC!
