Building Transparency

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
842727715
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Seattle, WA, USA
Phone
2155703750
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Pollution Abatement and Control Services

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,955,887
Expenses
$3,285,240
Assets
$7,396
Liabilities
$46,603

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

13 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • STACY SMEDLEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)

Highest reported compensation

  • STACY SMEDLEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $208,509 total reported compensation
  • VACLAV HASIK (PROGRAM DIRECTOR): $163,045 total reported compensation
  • MARY POSS (DIRECTOR, GLOBAL POLICY): $141,971 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Our core mission is to provide the open access data and tools necessary to enable broad and swift action across the building industry in addressing embodied carbon's role in climate change.

What it reported doing in 2024

Ec3 tool - the embodied carbon in construction calculator (ec3) tool is an open-source industry-leading sustainability platform that helps professionals find, assess, compare, benchmark, and reduce the amount of embodied carbon used in construction. With both individual and organizational public access, our ec3 tool currently features over 63,000 users, 16,500+ building projects in 83 countries, and more than 151,000 digitized epds. We have over 7,350 companies with active tool users. Ec3 enables carbon smart choices during material specification and procurement. It is the only free and open-access global embodied carbon accounting tool.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 67% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 78
  • Transparency & Controls: 54
  • Accountability: 84
  • Sustainability: 7
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 90.9%; rating input score 91
  • Program expense ratio: 81.8%; rating input score 82
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 3 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 50
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Missing
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -11.1%; rating input score 12; 12th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 6.3; rating input score 0; 0th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 19.6%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 34.7% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 28.8% per year; rating input score 100; 94th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 52.8% per year; rating input score 100; 98th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 90.9% of revenue deployed · 81.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $209K · 13 people listed · 3 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 26 of 26 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 12/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 1/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 0/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.