Accurately measuring embodied carbon in buildings

Embodied carbon in the construction industry is a major factor of climate change, but it is rarely measured accurately. A reference text co-edited by an EPFL researcher calls for greater transparency surrounding embodied carbon, along with the introduction of international standards. Catherine De Wolf, an architect and civil engineer, is a postdoctoral fellow at EPFL, working in the Structural Xploration Lab (SXL) of the school's "smart living lab" in Fribourg. Together with two colleagues she met at the University of Cambridge, she has edited a book containing novel research into grey energy by international experts. The review is both necessary and topical: "After the Paris climate agreement, many countries agreed to take steps to limit the amount of CO₂ produced in construction. However, there is still no international consensus about how to measure emissions arising from grey energy in that industry. So we thought it was time to put together a reference text that summarizes recent research in this area." But what are we talking about exactly? In construction, embodied carbon (or grey carbon) refers to the CO₂ footprint related to grey energy in a building. It takes into account greenhouse gas emissions produced during the extraction of materials used to construct a building, the transportation of those materials, the building work itself, renovations, demolition and the potential re-use of materials. It does not include "operational carbon" produced during the in-use phase of a building, including the consumption of electricity, heating and hot water. Underestimated and poorly assessed