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Climate Action

WED-B03: Let’s Talk About Sequestration

Wednesday, September 16, 2026
10:45 AM - 12:00 PM PT
1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW

It’s time we had an uncomfortable conversation about carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is complex, incremental, and subject to reversal. We need to be able to design and speak to its power with authenticity and accuracy, and design to maximize its potential, if we hope to achieve our climate action goals.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Review the mechanisms of carbon sequestration and key methods for modeling potential, as well as understanding the scale and magnitude of carbon sequestration in comparison with construction emissions.
  • Step back and understand the context, biases, and challenges with carbon sequestration models for urban and suburban environments, when the majority of research has stemmed from agricultural and forestry sciences.
  • Explore key lessons and uncertainties of carbon sequestration, including sometimes unexpected and interconnected relationships between plants, soil, precipitation, temperature, and human use, and the related reversibility risks.
  • Apply best practices for optimizing carbon sequestration in landscape design and operations across a variety of climates, communicating about it accurately to avoid greenwashing.