Net-Zero
 

Many organizations, projects, businesses and more are making pledges towards - and achieving in some cases - levels of carbon-neutrality or reduction, with regards most typically to operational carbon costs. That is to say, in most cases, the carbon cost of the electricity to operate a building, machine or vehicle. While this is the natural first step in rebalancing historically extractive actions, it is a fraction of the true carbon cost of most projects or activities.

 

Auditing, discussing, quantifying and the communication of the embedded carbon cost of a project or activity is an emerging, and crucial, field of study. This work reveals knowledge of the “cradle to graveˮ carbon cost of a product,

system, or service producing estimates sometimes also called “Lifecycle Analysis.ˮ This information is crucial to our project as we aspire to achieve 100% carbon neutrality to both operational and embedded standards.

 

It is our belief, and that of many experts in the field, that this type of analysis will become more and more prevalent, considered and valued in the coming years.

 

We are inspired to create an artwork that achieves higher environmental standards than most new buildings, homes or infrastructure projects - indeed what we believe might be the first of its kind - a large-scale fully carbon-neutral lighting project.

 

Auditing the carbon-costs of the project componentry will prove to be a substantial amount of work. Not just in analyzing the Environmental Product Disclosures (EPDs) provided by our suppliers, but establishing a system of

qualifications and vocabulary for all activities directly related to the project itself.

This carbon-neutral thinking impacts every aspect of the project. We will favor hardware solutions (servers, lighting, cabling / conduit, power supplies, etc) that register a lower-carbon cost in:

• how and where they were made

• mineral and fossil fuel consumption in the manufacturing process

• type and distance of materials to manufacture and then bring the product to market

• ability to reuse / repair / second-life the products

• ultimate feasibility to recycle most / all of the materials

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Offsets - Carbon offsets come in many flavors. We believe it is possible to purchase offsets that are transparent, additive, and measurable while being managed and realized locally, in the shadow of the bridge, as it were.

 

Part of our stated budget and fundraising strategy is centered on this mission: to establish an effective hyper-local carbon-offset program.We will work with third parties to administer what will be a sizable amount of capital to regional projects that are actively reducing or remediating carbon-producing systems at various scales.

 

One example that has been explored is to fund the electrification and further climate resilience of low-income housing through a partner such as The Neighborhood Developers, a non-profit community development

corporation based in Chelsea. Amplifying and extending programs that are underway, pipelined and set for impact allows our project to contribute directly without having to invent the process ourselves.

 

This type of hyper-local carbon-offsetting is a relatively new concept. We are passionate about this part of our project, and look forward to producing video documentation, web-based displays and published papers to share

our process and make available our foundational work in this space to other artists, cities, businesses and more.

 

Once realized, this project is poised to become one of the largest fully net-zero public artworks of its kind in North America, and potentially the world.