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2017 Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study V1

Research Question

What are the typical magnitudes and ranges of embodied carbon in buildings?

About

The Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study is the first stage of the LCA for Low Carbon Construction project funded by The Charles Pankow Foundation, Skanska USA and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the method used to quantify the carbon emissions that occur when extracting materials and making building products, otherwise known as ’embodied carbon’. Although there is growing recognition of the need to track and reduce embodied carbon emissions, building industry professionals need better data and guidance on how to implement low carbon methods in practice. 

This project compiled the largest known database of building embodied carbon and created an interactive database. This stage of the project established consensus on the order of magnitude of typical building embodied carbon, identified sources of uncertainty and outlined strategies to overcome this uncertainty. The report summarizes the key findings of this research, including benchmark, and provides the foundation for stage two of this project, the development of an LCA Practice Guide.​

Data

Research Team

  • K. Simonen (PI)
  • B. Rodriguez
  • S. Barrera
  • M. Huang
  • E. McDade
  • L. Strain

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Charles Pankow Foundation, Skanska USA and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The success of this project would not have been possible without the donation of the original LCA database from Arup as well as additional databases provided by: The International Living Future Institute, Kieran Timberlake, the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, MIT DeQo/Thornton Tomasetti, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) and the WRAP database in addition to individual LCA studies provided by firms and organizations.

Download Results & Database

Note: CLF is currently developing V2 of the WBLCA Benchmark Study. This 2017 Benchmark Study V1 is published only for archival purposes.

CLF WBLCA Benchmark Study V2

Resource Library

Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator

The Policy Reduction Calculator is a web-based tool developed by the Carbon Leadership Forum to provide policymakers with data-driven insights on low embodied carbon policies in North America.

Reclaimed and Reused: Recommended LCA Modeling Guidance to Support EPDs for Reused Construction Materials

Material reuse is one strategy for reducing the embodied carbon of construction. While the preparation of previously used materials for reuse has an environmental impact, it avoids many of the resource extraction and manufacturing impacts of building with newly manufactured products. Given the amount of demolition and deconstruction across North America (and beyond), there is a vast potential for material reuse to expand in scale. However, barriers to material reuse scaling exist.

DEQ Low Embodied Carbon Housing Program: Roadmap to Success

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States, a collaboration between the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), RMI, and the University of Washington (UW) Life Cycle Lab, provides an assessment of embodied carbon from US construction materials and explores pathways to align with a 1.5°C global warming limit.

International Embodied Carbon Data Availability: A Review of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Availability in Europe, China, and Australia

CLF completed a landscape analysis of product-level embodied carbon data availability in regions outside North America with the goals of: (i) understanding how LCA/EPD data availability varies globally; (ii) informing where targeted initiatives are needed to increase the availability of data; and (iii) determining whether adequate EPD data exists to develop CLF Material Baselines outside North America. This report summarizes our findings and provides initial insights into what data is available to inform low-carbon procurement efforts in Australia, China, and Europe.

The CLF Benchmark Explorer

Emissions from the operations of buildings and infrastructure are significant, well-understood contributors to national and global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the contribution of embodied carbon—emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials across the life cycle of a building or asset—is neglected by comparison. Even at the global level, embodied carbon estimates are typically based on manufacturing emissions from the production of a handful of the highest-impact materials (e.g. concrete, steel, aluminum, and wood).

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States, a collaboration between the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), RMI, and the University of Washington (UW) Life Cycle Lab, provides an assessment of embodied carbon from US construction materials and explores pathways to align with a 1.5°C global warming limit.

Washington State Carbon Emissions Estimation: 2025 – 2050

Emissions from the operations of buildings and infrastructure are significant, well-understood contributors to national and global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the contribution of embodied carbon—emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials across the life cycle of a building or asset—is neglected by comparison. Even at the global level, embodied carbon estimates are typically based on manufacturing emissions from the production of a handful of the highest-impact materials (e.g. concrete, steel, aluminum, and wood).

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