As part of the 10th annual World Green Building Week, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has issued a new vision to fully decarbonize the building sector by eliminating both operational and embodied carbon emissions.
According to the WorldGBC, building and construction are responsible for 39 per cent of all carbon emissions in the world, with operational emissions (from energy used to heat, cool and light buildings) accounting for 28 per cent.
The remaining 11 per cent comes from embodied carbon emissions, or ?upfront? carbon that is associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole building lifecycle.
The Council?s method highlights how buildings and infrastructure around the world can reach 40 per cent less embodied carbon emissions by 2030, and achieve 100 per cent net zero emissions buildings by 2050. The Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront report additionally proposes solutions to accelerate immediate action by the entire building and construction value chain.
The report sets out to demystify the challenge of addressing embodied carbon emissions, through breaking down complex terminology and creating a common language to set a consensus-built definition for net zero embodied carbon.
WorldGBC says, ?Embodied carbon emissions have been overlooked in the past but as shown by milestone research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), achieving drastic cuts in all carbon emissions over the ne...