Energy in buildings
EMBODIED CARBON
Bringing embodied carbon upfront In a new report, the World Green Building Council explains why a whole life vision is needed for buildings to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
I
t has been almost five years since The Paris Agreement at COP21 and two years since the landmark 2018 special report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), urging that we take drastic measures to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis. The climate science is indisputable, we must halve emissions every decade to reach net zero by 2050. The imperative to meet this challenge has been amplified across all sectors and stakeholders in 2020. With the devastating economic impacts of COVID-19, some necessary stimulus packages are rightly pursuing a green recovery to provide jobs, economic benefits and improve resilience. With buildings currently responsible for 39% of energyrelated global carbon emissions, decarbonising the sector is one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate the worst effects of climate breakdown. As the world’s population approaches 10bn, the global building stock is expected to double in size by 2060. To sustain this growth and urbanisation while meeting net zero targets by mid-century, we must ensure decarbonisation efforts address the whole lifecycle of our built environment – meaning our buildings and infrastructure. This means not only the emissions released during operation – which can be reduced through improving energy efficiency, generating and/or procuring renewable energy – but also during the manufacturing and transportation of materials, construction processes and end of life phases. These emissions, or embodied carbon, have historically been overlooked, but contribute to around 11% of all energy-related global carbon emissions for buildings and
20 Energy World | October 2020
With buildings currently responsible for 39% of energyrelated global carbon emissions, decarbonising the sector is one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate the worst effects of climate breakdown
even more if infrastructure is included. Carbon emissions released before a building or piece of infrastructure is used, or upfront carbon, will be responsible for half of the entire carbon footprint of new construction between now and 2050. As operational carbon is reduced, embodied carbon will continue to grow in importance as a proportion of total emissions. While we must continue to address operational carbon, we must now rapidly increase efforts to tackle embodied carbon emissions at a global scale too.
and increasingly standardised process for measurement – a Lifecycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is the globally accepted method for evaluating and communicating a wide range of environmental impacts across the whole lifecycle of a material, product or building. For manufacturers, using an LCA approach for their products or materials helps to improve manufacturing, transportation and end of life treatment. The results are often communicated in the form of Environmental Product Declarations, used to certify the carbon and environmental impact of their products, and inform Radical value chain collaboration product specifications. In September 2019, the World For developers, designers and Green Building Council (WorldGBC) building owners, pursuing an LCA launched Bringing Embodied Carbon approach during early stage project Upfront, which called for radical planning, provides the greatest cross sector collaboration to address opportunity for emissions savings. these emissions (See box). It can determine the optimum The report sets out a universal material selection and construction definition of embodied carbon, best processes to stay within a project’s practice principles to reduce carbon budget. emissions, actions that must be A range of software tools are taken by all stakeholders across the now available to calculate the LCA value chain, and our vision for a of a project, which seek to remove whole lifecycle approach to achieve some of the prohibitive financial full decarbonisation of the buildings and technical constraints. One and construction sector. prominent tool is One Click LCA In the document, we set out a Planetary, launched by Bionova in vision that by 2030, all new May in partnership with several buildings, infrastructure and organisations, including 15 Green renovations will have at least 40% Building Councils. less embodied carbon with significant upfront carbon Increased ambition reduction, and all new buildings We are seeing more ambition and must be net zero operational carbon. action to address embodied carbon Furthermore, by 2050, new in-line with the calls that were laid buildings, infrastructure and out within our report. Drivers from renovations will have net zero actors across the value chain will embodied carbon, and all buildings, be crucial to removing barriers and including existing buildings, must accelerating market transformation. be net zero operational carbon. NGOs, networks and researchers These ambitions rely on radical are acting as catalysts for whole collaboration, clear demand-side value chain collaboration. For signals, policy roadmaps, financial instance, the London Energy investment and supply chain Transformation Initiative, a solutions to create industry network of over 1,000 built confidence and facilitate the environment professionals in the systemic change needed. UK, produced the Embodied Carbon Primer to support project teams to Measuring and verifying design buildings that deliver You can’t manage what you can’t ambitious carbon reductions. measure. This is particularly Some governments are also true for embodied carbon. leading from the front, setting Luckily, there is a well-known embodied carbon reduction targets
