SpecTopics: Energy Comparison Tools Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3)
Why Is Embodied Carbon Important?
The building and construction sector has a vital role to play in eliminating carbon, as it is responsible for nearly 38% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Much of the carbon footprint of new buildings takes the form of embodied carbon — the emissions associated with material production and building construction.
In fact, embodied carbon is responsible for almost half of total new construction emissions. Unlike operational carbon emissions, which can be reduced over time with building energy efficiency renovations and the use of renewable energy, embodied carbon emissions are locked in place as soon as a building is built.
What Kind of Tools Can I Use to See the Carbon in Building Materials?
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and until now, material suppliers have found it challenging and expensive to publish Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) – technical documents reporting on the carbon footprint of a product – which are required in order to analyze the embodied carbon emissions associated with a new building.
With the EC3 tool, thousands of digital EPDs are now available in a free, open-source database. As a result, building designers, construction companies, and material suppliers will be able to directly measure, compare, and reduce the embodied carbon in specific new buildings.
What Is EC3?
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool is a free and easy-to-use tool that allows benchmarking, assessment, and reductions in embodied carbon, focused on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials. The EC3 tool uses building material quantities from construction estimates and/or BIM models and a robust database of digital, third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EC3 can be integrated with both the design and procurement phases of a construction project to look at a project’s overall embodied carbon emissions, enabling the specification and procurement of the low-carbon options.
The EC3 tool also allows owners, green building certification programs, and policymakers to assess supply chain data in order to create EPD requirements, and set embodied carbon limits and reductions, at the construction material and project scale.
The tool and its subsequent effect on the industry is driving demand for low-carbon solutions and incentivizing construction materials manufacturers and suppliers to invest in disclosure, transparency, and material innovations that reduce the carbon emissions of their products. EC3 and its supporting database are free to the public.
For more information, check out these resources:
EC3 Calculator
Carlisle’s EPD Library
Carlisle’s Sustainability Resource Page
The building and construction sector has a vital role to play in eliminating carbon, as it is responsible for nearly 38% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Much of the carbon footprint of new buildings takes the form of embodied carbon — the emissions associated with material production and building construction.
In fact, embodied carbon is responsible for almost half of total new construction emissions. Unlike operational carbon emissions, which can be reduced over time with building energy efficiency renovations and the use of renewable energy, embodied carbon emissions are locked in place as soon as a building is built.
What Kind of Tools Can I Use to See the Carbon in Building Materials?
You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and until now, material suppliers have found it challenging and expensive to publish Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) – technical documents reporting on the carbon footprint of a product – which are required in order to analyze the embodied carbon emissions associated with a new building.
With the EC3 tool, thousands of digital EPDs are now available in a free, open-source database. As a result, building designers, construction companies, and material suppliers will be able to directly measure, compare, and reduce the embodied carbon in specific new buildings.
What Is EC3?
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool is a free and easy-to-use tool that allows benchmarking, assessment, and reductions in embodied carbon, focused on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials. The EC3 tool uses building material quantities from construction estimates and/or BIM models and a robust database of digital, third-party verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EC3 can be integrated with both the design and procurement phases of a construction project to look at a project’s overall embodied carbon emissions, enabling the specification and procurement of the low-carbon options.
The EC3 tool also allows owners, green building certification programs, and policymakers to assess supply chain data in order to create EPD requirements, and set embodied carbon limits and reductions, at the construction material and project scale.
The tool and its subsequent effect on the industry is driving demand for low-carbon solutions and incentivizing construction materials manufacturers and suppliers to invest in disclosure, transparency, and material innovations that reduce the carbon emissions of their products. EC3 and its supporting database are free to the public.
For more information, check out these resources:
EC3 Calculator
Carlisle’s EPD Library
Carlisle’s Sustainability Resource Page
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