Story of Upfront Carbon

Lloyd Alter is a writer, public speaker, architect, inventor, and Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has published many thousands of articles on TreeHugger where he was Design Editor, and on such diverse platforms as Planet Green, HuffPo, The Guardian, Corporate Knights Magazine, and Azure Magazine. A former builder of prefab housing and a tiny-house pioneer, Lloyd is a passionate advocate of Radical Sufficiency – the belief that we use too much space, too much land, too much food, too much fuel, and too much money, and that the key to sustainability is to simply use less. He is the author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle. Lloyd lives in Toronto, Ontario.

• Acknowledgments1. The Lens of Upfront Carbon What Are Upfront Carbon Emissions and Why Are They Important? Why We Are Fixated on Energy, Not Carbon Carbon Takes Command The IPCC Does Not Say We're Doomed OK Doomer The Building Industry and Upfront Carbon The Carbon Footprint of Everything The Unbearable Heaviness of Carbon Transparency from Shoes to Motorcycles The Future We Want: Supply vs Demand Dematerialization and Degrowth Enjoy the Ride with Demand-Side Mitigation Why Sufficiency Is the Solution2. Strategies for Sufficiency Materiality: Build Out of Sunshine Ephemerality Frugality Simplicity Flexibility Circularity Universality Resiliency Satiety or Enoughness Electricity Intermittency Operating Efficiency Design Efficiency Inequality, Inequity, and Justice3. Stuff The Single-Use Coffee Cup From the Two-by-Four to Mass Timber to a Block of Flats The Block of Flats The Folly of Foam Insulation The Heat Pump The Puffer Jacket The Hamburger The Car The E-Cargo Bike4. Everything Connects A Prosperous AscentConclusion Appendix A: Cheat Sheet: A Short Guide to SufficiencyNotes Index About the Author About New Society Publishers

Lloyd Alter is the most thoughtful, creative, funny, lucid, provocative person writing today about design. Probably nobody will agree with everything in this book. But every reader will learn much that is fresh and important. — Denis Hayes, developer of the Bullitt Center, and national coordinator, Earth DayLloyd Alter's The Story of Upfront Carbon is the book the world needs: fascinating, clear, and positive. Read this, get everyone you know to read it, and save the planet — as Alter shows, it's much easier to achieve than you may think. — Dr. Barnabas Calder, Head of the History of Architecture Research Cluster, University of Liverpool School of Architecture In this important new book, architect Lloyd Alter, one of our most astute environmental analysts and writers, explains why we also must change our society from one driven by rampant overconsumption into one that adopts common-sense simplicity in our business practices and lifestyles.— F. Kaid Benfield, co-founder, LEED for Neighborhood Development, and author, People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think About Greener, Healthier Cities Lloyd Alter explains why we need to ask: Do I really need this product? Will something much smaller serve my needs? and finally, How can this be built without adding carbon to the atmosphere? The Story of Upfront Carbon is enlightening and it is essential. — Bart Hawkins Kreps, co-editor, Energy Transition and Economic Sufficiency