Healthy Homes: Embodied Energy + Carbon

Embodied Energy is the energy required to harvest, process, transport, and install a building material, while embodied carbon is the amount of carbon (CO2 or CO2e emission) to do the same. In other words, it is the energy and carbon emissions released before and during the construction of a building. Embodied carbon is shorthand for the indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over a building’s lifetime.

If you add up the embodied carbon in each material used to build a home, plus any energy used in the process, you can estimate its total embodied carbon. Each building material used in the construction of a home has its own carbon footprint. Carbon emissions represent the true climatic impact of buildings. By focusing on emissions during design, and assessing emissions once in operation, we can make sure we have low-carbon outcomes.

In the building of a typical home, the biggest sources of emissions are found in: concrete, floor furnishings, windows and walls. That’s why the choice of materials used is essential to reducing every home’s embodied carbon outcome.

Here’s why reducing embodied carbon and energy matters:

Buildings that excel at reducing embodied carbon also improve indoor air quality, energy efficiency, ecosystem impacts and resilience.
Lowered embodied carbon and energy is better for the health of the occupants and the ecosystem.
Buildings with natural materials can reduce upfront carbon emissions while providing high-efficiency levels which reduce the building’s overall operation emissions
By using natural materials, we improve the indoor air quality by reducing or eliminating the off-gassing of chemicals from petroleum-based materials.

Materials such as wood, straw, clay-straw, hemp, cork, sheep’s wool, etc, naturally sequester carbon and store it for the material’s useful life.
Source locally as much as possible, and opt for materials manufactured with renewable energy