Divergent Resource Logic — DRL
Resources

One room. Every calculator.
Every standard. Every regulator.

A curated directory of the carbon-accounting infrastructure that governs the construction industry. Calculators, standards, certifications, regulators, scientific bodies, datasets, and active legal cases — laid out together so the divergence between them is visible. None of these organisations is affiliated with this site.


The directory is organised by function. Within each section, entries are listed alphabetically. Every entry carries a one-line description of what the organisation actually does. Where an entry's relationship to the DRL framework is direct, it is noted in italics at the end of the description.


Carbon calculators & LCA tools

The free public-access calculators

These are the tools an architect, engineer, or specifier sits in front of when they make a material decision. Each implements a particular standards regime. The DRL Corrected Ledger uses these calculators' published outputs as the baseline for recomputation.

EC3 — Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator

Building Transparency / Carbon Leadership Forum. Free North American database of EPDs. Widely used in U.S. specification practice. Implements EN 15978 boundary.

Athena Impact Estimator

Athena Sustainable Materials Institute. North American whole-building LCA tool. Source of the Brock Commons EBD on the Corrected Ledger.

NECO₂ — National Embodied Carbon Repository (NZ)

BRANZ / MBIE. New Zealand's national construction-materials carbon repository. Subject of Codex Section 7.4 worked example.

LCAQuick

BRANZ. Early-design comparator tool, paired with NECO₂. The interface where the EN 15978 boundary becomes visible to a practitioner.

ICE Database

Inventory of Carbon and Energy. UK academic database widely cited in early-design embodied carbon assessment.

WoodWorks Calculators

WoodWorks Wood Products Council. Industry-funded LCA and carbon calculators distributed free to architects. Source of the T3 Minneapolis disclosures on the Corrected Ledger.

One Click LCA

Commercial whole-building LCA platform used widely in Europe. Implements EN 15978.

Tally Climate

Revit-integrated whole-building LCA tool widely used in North American architectural practice.


Standards & methodology

The standards that define the boundary

These are the standards that decide what gets counted and what does not. The DRL framework is, in substantive terms, an argument about where these standards have set the line.

ISO 14040 / ISO 14044

The international LCA standard. Defines life cycle assessment methodology globally. Origin of the biogenic-zero accounting convention.

ISO 21930

Sustainability in buildings — Environmental product declarations. Assigns the LULUC characterisation factor of zero to certified "sustainably managed" forestry. The off switch, in the auditor's voice.

EN 15978

European standard for whole-building LCA. The standard most national building LCAs implement. Excludes B1 by methodological choice.

EN 15804+A2

European standard for EPDs of construction products. The product-level companion to EN 15978.

ISO TC 207

Technical Committee for environmental management standards. The committee that produces ISO 14040/14044.

ISO TC 59 / SC 17

Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works. The committee that produces ISO 21930.

GHG Protocol

Greenhouse Gas Protocol — the most widely used corporate emissions accounting framework. Scope 1 / 2 / 3 definitions used in nearly every ESG disclosure.

Carbon Leadership Forum

University of Washington-based research collaborative. Authors of the Embodied Carbon Reduction Toolkit and a major influence on North American embodied-carbon practice.


Certification schemes

The bodies that issue the labels

These are the third-party schemes that issue the certifications referenced inside the standards. FSC and PEFC — between them — produce the "sustainably managed" designation that ISO 21930 then translates into a LULUC characterisation factor of zero.

FSC — Forest Stewardship Council

International forest certification body. Founded 1993. One of two certifying bodies whose label switches the LULUC factor to zero under ISO 21930.

PEFC — Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification

International umbrella for national forest certification schemes including SFI (US/Canada) and CSA (Canada). The other certifying body whose label switches the LULUC factor to zero.

SFI — Sustainable Forestry Initiative

North American forest certification standard. Industry-backed. Subject of an active Competition Bureau complaint filed by Ecojustice and seven other Canadian environmental organisations.

LEED

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. U.S. Green Building Council. The dominant North American building-level sustainability rating system.

BREEAM

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method. UK-origin building rating system widely used in Europe.

SBTi — Science Based Targets Initiative

Corporate emissions target validation. Used widely in ESG investment screening.

GRI — Global Reporting Initiative

Sustainability reporting standards. Most widely used corporate sustainability disclosure framework worldwide.

ISSB — International Sustainability Standards Board

IFRS-affiliated body developing global sustainability disclosure standards (IFRS S1 and S2). Increasingly influential post-2024.


Regulators & policy bodies

The agencies that hold the pen

Government agencies, international bodies, and intergovernmental panels that produce the regulatory framework within which the standards operate.

IPCC — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The scientific authority cited by every national greenhouse gas inventory. Source of the methane GWP100 value (27.9, AR6) used throughout the DRL framework.

UNFCCC

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The treaty under which all national GHG inventories are submitted. Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) reporting requirement.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. federal environmental regulator. April 2018 statement of policy on forest biomass — the document that classifies biomass combustion as carbon-neutral while stating, in its own text, "this is not a scientific determination."

USDA Forest Service

U.S. federal forestry agency. Administers the Wood Innovations Grant Program ($93M+ 2015–2025 + $95M FY2026 announced).

SEC — Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. corporate disclosure regulator. Climate disclosure rule status varies; relevant to scope-3 disclosure of construction-sector emissions.

EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)

European Union regulation on deforestation-free products. The first major regulatory instrument that requires landscape-side accounting of timber product origin.

EU Green Claims Directive

European Union restriction on environmental marketing claims. Comes into force September 2026. Restricts use of "carbon neutral" and similar in EU advertising without rigorous substantiation.

NZ Ministry for the Environment

New Zealand environmental regulator. Author of the April 2024 GHG Inventory Snapshot quoted in Codex Section 7.4: "afforestation causes an increase in net emissions in the year of planting."

UK Environment Agency / DEFRA

UK environmental regulator. Publishes the UK greenhouse gas inventory and conversion factors widely cited in corporate carbon accounting.

IEA — International Energy Agency

Intergovernmental energy and emissions analysis body. Construction sector emissions analyses are widely cited.


Emissions trading systems & pricing

Where carbon has a price

Government-administered carbon-pricing schemes. The price-side context for the disclosure-side argument the DRL framework is making.

EU ETS

European Union Emissions Trading System. The world's first and largest carbon market.

NZ ETS

New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. Includes forestry. Diagnostic context for Codex Section 7.4 and the Te Uru Rakau companion paper in preparation.

World Bank Carbon Pricing Dashboard

Global mapping of carbon pricing instruments. The reference for cross-jurisdictional comparison of carbon prices.

Verra (VCS)

Verified Carbon Standard. The largest voluntary carbon market standard. Subject of multiple greenwashing class actions including Dib v. Apple Inc.


Industry data & lobbying disclosure

Where the money is recorded

Public databases that track industry lobbying, political spending, and grant funding. The empirical record from which the DRL framework's configuration analysis is built.

OpenSecrets

Center for Responsive Politics. The standard reference for U.S. federal lobbying disclosure data.

Federal Election Commission

U.S. federal campaign finance disclosure.

Lobbying Disclosure Act database

U.S. Senate disclosure portal for federal lobbying activity under the LDA.

Regulations.gov

U.S. federal docket for public comment on proposed rules. The entry point for public participation in regulatory rulemaking.

U.S. Government Accountability Office

Congressional watchdog. Publishes reports on federal grant programs, including Forest Service mass-timber programmes referenced in CRS R47752.

Congressional Research Service

Congressional research arm. CRS Report R47752 is the source for the Forest Service / WoodWorks attribution finding quoted in the Reagan paper.


Scientific institutions & research

Where the underlying science is done

Research institutes, scientific bodies, and peer-reviewed journals that produce the underlying carbon science the DRL framework draws on. These are not advocacy organisations; they are the data producers.

World Resources Institute

Independent research institute. Global Forest Watch. Co-authors of Searchinger/Peng (Nature 2023) on the carbon costs of global wood harvests.

Nature

Peer-reviewed scientific journal. Publication venue for the Searchinger/Peng 2023 paper and the subsequent Sohngen/Baker/Favero critique and Searchinger/Berry/Peng reply in Nature 646.

Global Forest Watch

WRI-administered satellite monitoring platform. Real-time tracking of forest loss worldwide.

Scion (BSI)

New Zealand forestry Crown research institute (now part of Bioeconomy Science Institute). Source of the Long-Term Site Productivity trial data cited in Codex Section 7.4.

Manaaki Whenua — Landcare Research (BSI)

New Zealand soils and land-use research Crown research institute. S-Map national soil database; National Soil Carbon Monitoring System.

NIWA

New Zealand atmospheric and climate research institute. Atmospheric inversion programmes that constrain national-scale emissions accounting.

FPInnovations

Canadian forest products research institute. Source of A1–A3 emission factors used in the Corrected Ledger calculations.

USDA FS Southern Research Station

The U.S. Forest Service's research arm for the Southern U.S. Source of the loblolly pine rotation-age data referenced in the Reagan companion paper.


Active legal cases & complaints

Where the disclosure regime is being tested

Active lawsuits and regulatory complaints on greenwashing, carbon claims, and forestry certification. The legal context within which the DRL framework's findings will eventually be tested.

Dib v. Apple Inc.

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California; appealed to 9th Circuit. First scientific challenge to a corporate "carbon neutral" marketing claim based on forestry offsets.

Ecojustice et al. v. SFI

Canadian Competition Bureau complaint against the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Filed by eight environmental organisations.

Deutsche Umwelthilfe v. Apple

Frankfurt Regional Court, Germany. Won August 2024 — Apple's "CO₂ neutral" Apple Watch claim ruled misleading.