Miller Hull

Can Architecture Firms Become Truly Carbon Neutral?

Earlier this month, Seattle’s Miller Hull Partnership announced the launch of EMissions Zero, an initiative, according to the firm’s press release, “aimed at eliminating emissions in the built environment and reducing Miller Hull’s environmental impact.” Part of that effort involves purchasing carbon offsets—essentially, emission reductions made in one area to compensate for emissions made elsewhere. Miller Hull has pledged to offset their portion of the construction of all of their projects. This is an admirable and ambitious goal, given the amount of embodied carbon involved in construction, but one fraught with a lot of questions, the main one being: How do you set a price for carbon emissions in a world economy operating without an internationally, agreed-upon carbon cap? To answer that question and a few more, I called Ron Rochon, managing partner at Miller Hull, and we had an honest and insightful discussion about the EMissions Zero initiative, the current shortcomings of carbon offsets, and the way forward.

Read the full story at Common Edge