How much do you know about embodied carbon?
Net Zero is one of the biggest buzz terms at the moment. We've got ambitious goals in the UK to achieve it by 2050, ensuring we reach a point where we aren't contributing to greenhouse gas levels. We've got another objective before that to reduce emissions by 68% (from the level in 1990) by the end of the decade. So, there is a lot of attention on improving various things, including the built environment. This includes everything from residential architecture in London to industrial facilities, public buildings, and more.
One thing we need to look at is embodied carbon. A massive amount of greenhouse gas emissions come from the built environment, including construction and the daily operation of buildings. A key way to address this is to ensure buildings have lower levels of embodied carbon. However, it can be tricky to understand what it is and how to calculate it. So, let's have a closer look.
What is it?
The easy way to understand embodied carbon is that it's the emissions a building or piece of infrastructure will generate during its lifetime. You need to think about a number of key things here, including the materials you are using, repairs and maintenance, and eventual demolition.
Let's imagine you are building a home out of traditional bricks and mortar. You can calculate the embodied carbon of each brick. This includes the greenhouse gas emissions from extracting materials and manufacturing the brick, transport to the site, construction, maintenance, and end of life uses (recycling and reuse).
Calculation
Can you see the big challenge with embodied carbon? It can be incredibly difficult to calculate it for any building or piece of infrastructure. There can be emissions at different stages of the lifecycle. Architects, contractors, and other stakeholders are unable to control some of these. So, it can lead to challenges for residential architecture in London and other types of buildings in different areas.
While it is hard to calculate embodied carbon, there are two different ways to attempt it. Firstly is to look at Scopes. This is an interesting method because it assigns responsibility for emissions. Scope 1 is all emissions that arise directly from operations within a building. So, businesses or residents are responsible for them. Scope 2 is indirect, including greenhouse gases from heating, cooling, and energy consumption. Finally, Scope 3 is key things like the emissions from materials.
The more common way to calculate embodied carbon, especially in construction, is lifecycle modules. They cover the various stages in the lifecycles of different products, including bricks, concrete, glass, etc. So, examples include the product stage (A1-A3), use stage (B1-B7), and end of life (C1-C4). There is also Module D to look at things like recycling and reuse potential. If you consider everything here, you can get a full cradle to grave carbon assessment.
Talk to us about residential architecture in London
If you want to design your dream high end home, it's a really good idea to think about embodied carbon. The building should be sustainable and ideally Net Zero. You can accomplish this by thinking carefully about what materials to use, technology, and how to make important emissions savings. For example, can you specify materials with a small carbon footprint and a long lifespan with recycling or reuse potential?
You can rely on Coffey Residential to help you design an exceptional home. We're creative and understand the importance of making properties as efficient as possible. So, get in touch today and discuss residential architecture in London with us or projects in other parts of the world.