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Meet Assistant Teaching Professor Matt Jungclaus

Matt Jungclaus smiling with a beard wearing a gray button-down shirt, standing outdoors in front of a blurred brick campus building.

What were you doing before joining the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering?

Immediately before stepping into this role, I taught two Masters of the Environment courses at CU Boulder on zero-carbon buildings and emerging decarbonization technologies while running my own consulting practice, Building Insights. Through Building Insights, I lead building and product life cycle assessment (LCA) for clients including Amazon, Microsoft, RMI and the Carbon Leadership Forum. This work deepens my expertise in sustainable building and product design while bringing real-world challenges directly into the classroom.

Before that, I earned a mid-career PhD in architectural engineering at CU Boulder, studying embodied carbon in the built environment with Dr. Wil Srubar and serving as the department’s lead teaching assistant. Earlier, at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), I led techno-economic analyses that informed energy policy and building design for clients including the U.S. Navy, General Services Administration, REI, New York City Mayor’s Office for Sustainability, City of Pittsburgh and McDonald’s.

What are your primary interests or focus areas?

My professional and academic work centers on sustainable building and product design, with life cycle assessment as the throughline. I focus especially on embodied carbon, the emissions associated with materials and construction, which occur before a building ever turns on its lights, and on practical low-cost ways to reduce it through smarter material choices, better data and design strategies. 

I bring that same perspective into engineering fundamentals. When teaching Mechanics of Materials during my PhD studies, for example, I incorporated cement and steel decarbonization and the structural potential of mass timber, helping students see sustainability as a thread throughout the discipline, rather than a niche elective.

What drew you to CU Boulder?

I am a CU Boulder alum: I earned my PhD in this department in 2025, so I already knew the people, culture and caliber of teaching well before considering a full-time faculty position. While I have enjoyed working as an independent consultant, I have always been drawn to the teaching, mentorship and service that come with a full-time role at CU. 

One specific memory inspired me to apply for this position: At graduation in 2025, a former Mechanics of Materials student introduced me to his family and told me that my enthusiasm and encouragement had inspired him to pursue structural engineering. That moment has stayed with me as a reminder of the impact a teaching professor can have in helping the next generation of professionals find purpose in their work. Combined with my love for Boulder and the mountains, and a department where I already felt at home, the decision to return felt natural.

How does your work address real-world problems or applications?

My consulting work is the clearest evidence that this expertise solves real-world problems. On every project, I use life cycle assessment to help decision-makers understand the environmental trade-offs between different design and material choices. My current work with NSF International and Amazon uses LCA to help guide consumers toward more sustainable products. This directly enables consumers to make purchasing decisions that are more environmentally sound. My recent work with RMI and the Carbon Leadership Forum to develop Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States used building stock analysis and life cycle assessment to define actionable policy pathways to achieving national climate goals, which state policymakers can use to design more effective policies. Any resulting policies will affect our nation's building stock, and change the way that future architectural engineers design and construct buildings. 
 

Are there any projects or collaborations you're especially excited to begin at CU Boulder?

I look forward to engaging with new programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, such as the sustainability engineering minor. I am passionate about integrating sustainable building and product design throughout the curriculum, which is why I am excited to teach Sustainability in Action, a required course for the minor, in spring 2027. 

What's something you're passionate about outside of work?

I am building an A-frame cabin in the mountains near Alma, Colorado, and the project has become an unexpected extension of my career. In addition to installing the structural framing, insulation, siding, wiring, plumbing and other components myself, I’ve experienced firsthand the decisions builders and developers make every day, albeit on a much smaller scale. My work has always focused on the environmental, economic and practical tradeoffs of different technologies, but that calculus changes when you are the one purchasing, handling and installing the materials. We’ve prioritized low-embodied-carbon materials and designed the home to be significantly more energy efficient than code requires. I look forward to using the cabin as a real-world case study in my classes.

When I am not in Alma, I enjoy playing jazz saxophone, chasing after my 3-year-old daughter and enjoying our beautiful state.