The Story of Upfront Carbon: How a Life of Just Enough Offers a Way Out of the Climate Crisis

by Lloyd Alter

Overview

When you look at the world through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes

The astonishing upfront carbon of everyday objects from coffee cups to heat pumps, and why electric bikes, not electric cars, are the answer.

Think that buying an electric car or switching to a heat pump is going to save the planet? Think again.

"Upfront carbon" refers to all emissions involved in making your car, your home, or any other item. These invisible embodied carbon emissions matter a lot. As we weed out fossils fuels and incorporate more renewables into our energy supply, upfront carbon becomes increasingly dominant compared to operating emissions, yet it is often ignored.

By focusing on consumption rather than production, The Story of Upfront Carbon covers:

• Why we are fixated on energy efficiency, not carbon, and why this needs to change
• Why carbon calculations are so fiendishly difficult
• How the simple idea of sufficiency for individuals and whole economies is a powerful strategy to avert looming climate catastrophe
• How big-picture thinking and a systemic approach to production can help guide the transition to degrowth and an equitable, zero-carbon society.

Leavened with wit and packed with concrete strategies for minimizing the ecological footprint of transportation, agriculture, consumer goods, the built environment, and more, this highly readable and accessible guide is required reading for a world on the brink.

AWARDS

• DISTINGUISHED FAVORITE | 2025 Independent Press Award: Social/Political Change

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865719927
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	05/21/2024
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. 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 Solution

2. 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 Justice

3. 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 Bike

4. Everything Connects
A Prosperous Ascent

Conclusion
Appendix A: Cheat Sheet: A Short Guide to Sufficiency

Notes
Index
About the Author
About New Society Publishers

Editorial Reviews

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 Day

Lloyd 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

From the Publisher