Topic

Embodied carbon

Tour group among timber wall framing under a blue sky.

Embodied carbon is the carbon emitted making, transporting, and installing a building's materials, and later maintaining and disposing of them. Most of it is released before anyone moves in.

Because a Passive House needs so little energy to run, its materials become a larger share of its lifetime carbon. In UK modeling by LETI over 60 years, operating energy was about two-thirds of the carbon of a typical new building. Built to ultra-low energy with a heat pump, it fell to between a quarter and a third, and the materials became the largest share.

PHI sets no embodied-carbon criterion; its limits cover operating energy. Designers should consider counting the materials themselves, with a life-cycle assessment.

The largest share is usually in the structure and foundations, where concrete and steel dominate, so using less of them matters most. A compact form saves both energy and material. Renovating an existing building usually beats demolishing and rebuilding, and the renovation should be deep. Insulation choice matters too: bio-based materials such as wood fiber, cellulose, and straw store carbon, while foam's footprint depends largely on its blowing agent.

Training on this topic

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22 courses and sessions

Specialized courses 1

Paid sessions 4

  • Session · Enclosures

    Material Thoughts

    Floris Keverling Buisman, 475 High Performance Building Supply; Mike Horgan, Cairn Collaborative; Caroline Dunn, Cairn Collaborative; Andrew Ruff, GOA Architecture (moderator)

    1.25 AIA LU · 1 PHI credit

    $19

  • Session · Climate and carbon

    More Optimization

    Steve Hessler, New Energy Works; Louis Koehl, Handel; Gabrielle Brainard, SOM (moderator)

    1.25 AIA LU · 1 PHI credit

    $19

  • Session · Retrofits and EnerPHit

    Step-By-Step

    Nidhi Shah, RACE-Studio; Buck Moorhead, Buck Moorhead Architect; Roxanne Ryce-Paul, NYC School Construction Authority (moderator)

    1.25 AIA LU · 1 PHI credit

    $19

  • Session · Retrofits and EnerPHit

    Pride of Place

    George Kontaroudis, Ikc; Stas Zakrzewski, ZH Architects; Bria Josephs, b.a. forma (moderator)

    1.25 AIA LU · 1 PHI credit

    $19

Free sessions 17

Writing on embodied carbon 7