HomebuildersCAN
A community of practice to measure and reduce embodied carbon in home construction, powered by RMI
About Us
Developed by RMI with an industry stakeholder group, HomebuildersCAN is a community of practice to educate and support builders to reduce the embodied carbon emissions associated with their homes and prepare builders for anticipated regulation and investor pressure.
Members of HomebuildersCAN will work alongside experts and leading practitioners to:
- increase performance on embodied emissions and share successes,
- adopt and scale profitable climate-smart building practices, and
- advocate for alignment across the sector.
getting involved
Members benefit from exclusive access to members-only webinars, workshops, forums, in-person events and newsletters, prominent company features and spotlights, opportunities to influence the program, and custom consultation.
This is a voluntary program and membership is completely free. During the first phase of the program, members will be invited to webinars, workshops, and forums that will provide attendees with learning and connection opportunities to help you succeed.
There will be several opportunities for members to shape program requirements intended for subsequent phases of the program. Initial ideas on detailed program requirements (e.g., reporting, commitment pathways) can be found here. Members will also be able to form working groups in specific topic areas (e.g., sustainability reporting, portfolio-scale quantification) where additional guidance, research, and outreach is needed.
Membership is open to homebuilders of all sizes with operations in North America, and all organizations that wish to support the program as consulting partners. This includes but is not restricted to energy raters, manufacturers, investors, green building rating programs, LCA practitioners, or regulators.
The program is designed with flexibility to support homebuilders no matter where they are in their embodied carbon journey, from those just learning about what embodied carbon is to those with built example-demonstrating reductions.
Become a MemberProgram Team
Chris Magwood
Manager, Carbon-Free Buildings
Chris has been designing and building zero-carbon buildings throughout his 25-year career. From 2005 to 2018, he was a lead instructor in a hands-on design/build program at Endeavour Centre and was responsible for many zero-carbon, zero-toxin, and zero-waste buildings. In 2019, he helped found Builders for Climate Action and codeveloped the BEAM tool for measuring material emissions in residential buildings. He authored four major studies of embodied carbon in new construction for Canadian governments and helped Canadian cities develop an embodied carbon policy. Chris published eight books on green construction, most recently coauthoring Build Beyond Zero: New Ideas for Carbon Smart Architecture (Island Press, 2022) with Bruce King.
tracy huynh
Senior Associate, Carbon-Free Buildings
Tracy is a senior associate in the Embodied Carbon team within the Carbon-Free Buildings Program. She leverages her expertise in structural engineering, mass timber construction, and life-cycle assessment analyses to support the team’s goals of reducing carbon embodied in building materials to meet rigorous climate targets. Prior to joining RMI, Tracy led the structural engineering and building systems development for prefabricated, mass timber building components of multi-residential buildings in Vancouver, Canada. She was a structural engineer and associate at Knippers Helbig in New York City, where she engineered and managed numerous projects from complex, specialty structures, including one of the country’s largest steel grid shells, ETFE membrane shade features, and hybrid steel and timber structures.