Decarbonizing construction

WBSCD’s report “Decarbonizing construction – Guidance for investors and developers to reduce embodied carbon” provides targeted guidance for developers and investors to leverage their unique opportunity to drive transformation at the early stages of building projects to achieve big embodied carbon reductions. In addition to contributing to the global effort to reduce carbon emissions, investors and developers can significantly reduce their “financed” emissions across different asset classes they are invested in.

The report provides over 50 ready to use embodied carbon-reduction policies and best practices grouped into one of the following five categories.

1. Create a carbon policy that sets out consistent requirements for all projects to follow.
2. Set targets and transparency requirements for projects to meet across all their phases.
3. Prioritize circularity – that is, less new building and more reuse and refurbishment.
4. Design optimization to use less material and to choose materials with a low carbon footprint.
5. Low-carbon procurement to ensure acquisition of materials with a low carbon footprint.