MATERIALS
CARBON CONSTRUCTION A significant amount of energy is trapped within the materials used in the creation of our buildings. The energy embodied within materials, products and technologies is a key factor in the carbon footprint of buildings due to their direct link to sourcing of raw materials, manufacture procurement and construction. WHAT IS EMBODIED CARBON? Embodied carbon considers all the greenhouse gasses associated with the entire lifecycle of a material or product. It includes extraction, manufacture, transportation, installation, maintenance and endof-life carbon associated with each building material and/or component over the lifecycle of the building.
WHY DOES IT MATTER? Historically, reducing the building sector’s carbon emissions has always targeted operational carbon. This has been appropriate in South Africa where our grid is so carbon intensive. But when grids become cleaner (as they have largely done in Europe), the focus of reducing emissions in the built sector moves to embodied carbon. While operational carbon is produced during the day-to-day activities of running and using a building,
embodied carbon results from producing, procuring and installing materials and components that make up a structure, as well as encompassing the end-of-life stages of a building (ie demolition, removal and repurposing of materials). For the industry to make headway with understanding the overall carbon impact of the built sector, whole life carbon must be assessed. Due to the lifespan of buildings (typically 60 years), materials that are being specified into new buildings now need to shift towards lower embodied carbon materials to support the required shift towards a low carbon built sector.
HOW IS IT CALCUATED? Embodied carbon is measured using a lifecycle analysis and is categorised into carbon associated with the various stages of a building.
CLF-Policy-Primer-1
Above: Embodied carbon (yellow) and operational carbon (blue) across the key lifecycle stages of a building. Below: Terminology used in this report cross-referenced to terms and lifecycle stages defined in EN15978.
WGBC Bringing embodied carbon upfront
WGBC
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POSITIVE IMPACT ISSUE 17
