Efforts to reduce the embodied carbon emissions of building materials

Feature image: The LEED Gold Bay Area Metro Center in San Francisco. Image credit: © Blake Marvin Photography.

The embodied carbon of construction and building materials is often overlooked, even though it is estimated to contribute roughly 11% of global emissions. This includes the emissions that result from the extraction, manufacturing, transportation, installation and disposal of products like steel, concrete, insulation, drywall and other materials. USGBC has led the way by launching a pilot credit for LEED to encourage developers to procure lower-carbon building materials.

In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports, homes and buildings account for more than 30% of the country’s emissions, which includes both on- and off-site sources. However, this does not account for the embodied carbon of building materials.

Currently, there is no public data from federal agencies that estimates the national emissions contribution from construction materials. This is a huge gap in our understanding of buildings sector emissions and potentially even in developing policies to address the climate crisis. Federal and state policymakers have recently made tangible and significant progress to reduce the embodied carbon of building materials through labelling, accounting and procurement initiatives, however.