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100%
of projects modeled for embodied carbon.
54%
Portfolio-wide embodied carbon reduction in 2025.
Berkeley, CA, firmn Noll & Tam Architects has spent more than 30 years designing civic and institutional buildings like libraries, community colleges, public safety facilities for California municipalities that demand durable, budget-conscious work with measurable environmental performance. Founded in 1992 by Chris Noll and Janet Tam, FAIA, the firm has built a reputation on projects where sustainability is structural, not cosmetic.
The goal: build the analytical habits, workflow, and team fluency that make carbon a reliable input to design decisions — not a reporting exercise completed after the fact. And find a LCA platform that is fast and accessible enough to meet teams where they are at.
Screenshot from C.Scale showcasing this and that and something else that will be explained in this caption.
Noll & Tam modeled embodied carbon on every project in their portfolio. For new buildings, they established a baseline reflecting a typical code-compliant approach to energy and materials. For renovation work, they compared each project to a hypothetical new building of the same size and use. From each baseline, they tested one or more design scenarios.Where projects were far enough along, they incorporated actual project data — energy use, photovoltaic systems, and material selections.
Earlier-phase work relied on default assumptions, with targeted testing of strategies such as lower-carbon materials and extended interior replacement cycles. For reporting, they documented the scenario most closely reflecting the project as designed.
Screenshot from C.Scale showcasing this and that and something else that will be explained in this caption.
"C.Scale made it possible to apply this analysis across every project. Many tools require detailed inputs that are difficult to maintain across every project. With C.Scale, we are able to generate a baseline, test scenarios, and identify where the biggest impacts sit — and focus attention on major drivers rather than chase precision that wouldn't change decisions."
Ned Reifenstein
Director of Sustainable Design @ Noll & Tam
The results reinforced patterns the team often sees in practice. Renovation projects consistently show lower embodied carbon than new construction — but those decisions are typically made before carbon analysis begins, which limits the ability to influence outcomes. Refrigerants can be a significant contributor. Projects with larger landscapes may offer opportunities for carbon sequestration. These are the kinds of insights that are beginning to inform design thinking across the firm.
Their next step is to move this work even earlier — so carbon shapes decisions, not just documents them.
Screenshot from C.Scale showcasing this and that and something else that will be explained in this caption.
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