LPA Sets Aggressive Plan to Cut Carbon Emissions

The firm’s updated Embodied Carbon Action Plan pushes past the nation’s strictest environmental codes to seek cost savings and lower emissions for clients

LPA Design Studios has revealed an updated plan for eliminating carbon emissions from the structural materials in its projects, including broad changes to the firm’s design standards that rethink how designers specify concrete, steel and other high-impact structural components.

The firm’s revised 2025 Embodied Carbon Action Plan (ECAP) was developed as part of SE 2050, a national initiative to phase out embodied carbon in structural systems by mid-century. Embodied carbon refers to emissions associated with the extraction, manufacture, transport, installation and disposal of building materials and comprises 11% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

LPA’s plan goes beyond SE 2050’s program requirements to accelerate learning and scale innovation. While the initiative asks firms to trackRather than tracking and disclosing embodied carbon emissions on six projects annually, as required by SE 2050, the plan calls for designers to perform embodied carbon analyses (called Life Cycle Assessments) at every milestone on every applicable project. With roughly 130 projects a year — about half involving structural systems — the firm is using the scale of its portfolio to drive internal fluency and amplify industry wide data sharing.

“Shared responsibility is a core value here,” said Ellen Mitchell, LPA’s Director of Sustainability & Applied Research. “That means committing to transparency early, even before we have all the answers. We’re doing the hard work now so our teams and our clients can learn faster.”

LPA’s approach centers on finding value for clients in carbon reduction strategies. By questioning what materials are used, and whether they need to be used at all, LPA is helping clients make smarter decisions that reduce emissions and lower costs. On a recent school project for East Central ISD in San Antonio, rethinking the structural system through the lens of embodied carbon led to a $1 million reduction in construction costs.

“This isn’t about sacrifice,” said Daniel Wang, LPA’s Director of Structural Engineering. “Embodied carbon reduction is often a path to smarter, simpler systems that do more with less. These opportunities are everywhere, if you start early and work together.”

The new guidelines are the latest evolution in an LPA design process that makes reducing carbon emissions a priority on every project, regardless of scale or budget. The firm’s integrated approach — bringing all disciplines to the table from the earliest design stages — has made LPA a national leader in cutting operational fossil fuel use through the AIA 2030 Commitment. In the last five years, the firm has cut predicted energy use on its projects by an average of 75% — a feat that helped LPA earn the 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award.

“We didn’t get to net-zero in a day, and we won’t solve embodied carbon tomorrow,” said LPA President and Chief Design Officer Keith Hempel, FAIA. “What we know is that, when we hold ourselves accountable, invest in education, follow the data, listen to our clients and lean on our colleagues, there’s always a way.”

The plan includes the adoption of several tough internal material standards that focus on GWP reduction. Design teams will adopt CALGreen’s voluntary Tier 2 embodied carbon limits - the state's most demanding compliance level - as mandatory. LPA's plan goes further still, setting strict standards based on project location and market availability.

This newest ECAP revision builds on several firmwide initiatives that began when LPA first signed the SE 2050 Commitment in Sept. 2023. Since then, an interdisciplinary task force of LPA designers and researchers have collaborated to update the firm’s materials specifications, revamp the materials library, and build bridges with carbon-conscious manufacturers and contractors, The firm also developed a comprehensive decarbonization guide for integrated teams (“Decarbonization by Discipline”) and invested more than $1.5 million in sustainability education for designers.