About 50% of building’s emissions come from embodied carbon [1]: emissions arising from the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials.
As buildings are becoming more energy efficient and the grid is decarbonizing, this share increases (see graphic).
So far, we have mainly addressed operational emissions via reduction targets in building regulations, planning requirements by local authorities and sustainability assessment rating schemes (BREEAM Official, LEED Certification of USGBC (New & Existing Building) etc.) [2]. We need to start addressing embodied emissions too! 💪🏻
Why?
📈 Emissions produced earlier in time are more harmful to the atmosphere (concept of “time value of carbon” [3]), and any new construction will cause a great emission peak in the beginning.
🙄 We currently have close to 0 understanding of the tradeoffs between embodied and operational carbon (e.g. if you increase an isolation, embodied carbon will increase while operational decreases). If we don’t consider embodied emissions, we are calculating wrongly. It’s like throwing away your car to buy a new Tesla - if you are optimizing for sustainability, this does not make sense at all.
👷🏻 To switch to renewable energy sources, lots of new infrastructure construction is necessary and global building stock will double by 2060 [4]. We need to find ways to build and refurbish sustainably.