"embodied energy" means the energy needed to create the material. So that involved in mining aluminium, refining ore etc, moving it around the world until it's built into a building.
Carelessly specified new carpets will off-gas VOCs to the detriment of the local air quality (until there's none left in thecarpet material).
In both cases he's saying that an architect should be aware of the wider context of their material choices and consequential effect on both the planet and the building's inhabitants.
To an extent, and seemingly always with frames. But pro riders often use parts that aren't "sponsership approved" - they just make them all black or similar (rather than have another manfacturer's logo on them)
Sorry, I felt the need to respond to this. Why are shorts juvenile? They are a perfectly rational and sane climatic adaptation of clothing, allowing decent airflow over a human body.
To decry shorts as juvenile is sympotmatic of simple minded attitudes that lead to people in warm climates spending the hottest part of the day wearing full suits in fully glazed boxes which need to be energy intensively air conditioned so that they don't die.
Carelessly specified new carpets will off-gas VOCs to the detriment of the local air quality (until there's none left in thecarpet material).
In both cases he's saying that an architect should be aware of the wider context of their material choices and consequential effect on both the planet and the building's inhabitants.