Environmental Accounting

Embodied Carbon: A Look Forward

Sustain Insight Article: Volume I

th
Author: Craig Jones 11 January 2011
 Did you know that whole life carbon studies may be over-
estimating the total GHG emissions of electricity by as much
as 270% between now and 2050?

Source: Sustain Ltd, 2011

Executive Summary

Embodied carbon and carbon footprinting are topics of growing interest. Embodied carbon
is the carbon associated with material extraction, transport and processing activities. It
mainly comes from the use of fossil fuel resources to heat and power production processes
and transport activities. But what is the difference between embodied carbon and carbon
footprinting? They are in fact closely related. Embodied carbon can only be used in the
context of materials, for example activities related to the construction and demolition of a
building, including the production of materials. Whereas a carbon footprint can also extend
to the energy and carbon required to heat and light a building. The term embodied carbon
is particularly popular in construction and it represents a significant proportion of the whole
life burden of a building.

For example, in new domestic buildings the embodied carbon was estimated to be
equivalent to 12-19 years of operational carbon for an average UK domestic new build
dwelling. Non-domestic buildings have a greater diversity of types, sizes, applications and
lifetimes. Consequently embodied versus operational carbon is usually expressed as a
fraction of whole life emissions. Literature on whole life carbon is starting to appear in the
public domain. Such studies are reporting significant contributions of embodied carbon to
the whole life carbon. For example, recent studies report 30-45% embodied carbon for
offices and up to an incredible 60% for warehouses. These are already significant
proportions but as thermal standards reduce embodied carbon is becoming an ever
important fraction of the whole life carbon burden. These figures clearly show that
embodied carbon from construction is already a significant burden and one that needs its
due attention.

Despite the significance of embodied carbon they are not being calculated with a fair
embodied carbon versus operational carbon comparison. Embodied carbon is a large
upfront investment, which occurs very much in our present climate. However, operational
carbon occurs continually over many years. This comes from a combination of heat and
electricity. Whilst heating systems need an active participation from owners or occupiers to
reduce emissions, those from grid electricity do not. This report examines the effect of
greener electricity on the embodied versus operational carbon of a building between now
and 2050. The scenario that failed to consider a year on year improvement in electricity
over-estimated the total GHG emissions of electricity by as much as 270% between now
and 2050. This is clearly significant.

These results were applied to two building types, a new domestic house and a new primary
school. The analysis showed that previous whole life carbon studies would over-estimate
the operational carbon by 50% for a typical new domestic building and by 95% for a new
primary school. The latter introduces almost a two-fold margin of error in the calculations
which is clearly significant. The analysis presented here offers a new dimension to
embodied carbon versus operational carbon and has knock on implications to the future
assessment of embodied carbon outlays.
Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background .............................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Goal and Scope ........................................................................................................ 2
1.3 About Sustain ........................................................................................................... 2
2.0 Standards and Activities: Defining the Landscape ......................................... 3
3.0 Embodied Versus Operational Carbon: A Look Forward................................ 6
3.1 Background .............................................................................................................. 6
3.2 The Future of Electricity ............................................................................................ 7
4.0 Results .........................................................................................................10
4.1 A New Domestic Building ........................................................................................ 10
4.2 A New Primary School ............................................................................................ 12
5.0 Discussion ....................................................................................................14
6.0 Conclusions ..................................................................................................15
Further Information ...............................................................................................15
References ...........................................................................................................16
Appendix 1: Environmental Accounting Services at Sustain Ltd ............................17
Embodied Carbon: A Look Forward Sustain Ltd

Did you know that 1 kg of paper requires more embodied

energy to produce cradle-to-gate than 1 kg of steel?

Source: The ICE Database, 2011

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background
Embodied carbon and product carbon footprinting are topics of rising importance. In the UK
especially there is a growing momentum. But what is embodied carbon and how does it
differ from a carbon footprint?

Embodied carbon mainly comes from the use of fossil fossil fuel resources to heat and power
production processes and transportation activities. Starting with the extraction of resources
in the ground, which is known as the cradle, these materials are then transported around a
sequence of processing plants and operations until a product is finally ready to use. A final
carbon release may come from chemical reactions in manufacturing processes, as seen in
cement manufacturing. The sum of all these carbon sources is known as the embodied
carbon. It is often measured with the boundaries of cradle-to-gate, which is up to the factory
gate, or cradle-to-site, which is up to the site of use. The end of life activities can also be
associated with embodied carbon.

Embodied carbon and carbon footprinting are closely related. However, embodied carbon
can only be used in the context of materials, for example all activities related to the
construction and demolition of a building, including the production of materials. Whereas a
carbon footprint can also extend to the energy
energy and carbon required to heat and light a
building. The term product carbon footprinting (PCF) is also gaining in popularity. As the
term suggests this is related to a specific product and when the product doesn’t consume
energy in operation it is the same
same as the embodied carbon footprint. The term embodied
carbon is particularly popular in construction and it represents a significant proportion of the
whole life burden of a building.

With ongoing efforts to reduce the operational

carbon of new and existing buildings, for
example through improved legislation and
standards and the prospect of 2016 zero
carbon homes and 2019 zero carbon building
(non-residential) in the UK and improved
standards worldwide embodied carbon is fast
gaining importance.

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Embodied Carbon: A Look Forward Sustain Ltd

1.2 Goal and Scope

This report starts with a summary of various activities in the field of embodied carbon and
carbon footprinting, including a landscape report on the standards under development. It
then progresses to the main purpose of the report, which is to highlight a key weakness that
appears in current embodied versus operational carbon studies for construction. Embodied
carbon is a large upfront carbon release that very much occurs in our present time period.
However, operational carbon occurs continually over a long time period.

Climate change is widely accepted as one of the largest issues for our current society. The
release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere is the
key contributor to climate change. To mitigate the effect of global warming large reductions
in the amount of GHGs released into the atmosphere must occur. 2050 is often used as the
timescale for reduction targets and the UK is committed to a legally binding target of 80%
GHG reduction on 1990 levels by 2050. There is a further interim target of a 34% reduction
by 2020. To achieve these targets significant action will need to be taken and this brings
with it many challenges but also many opportunities.

It’s considered that to achieve such a high a carbon reduction some sectors will need to
play a larger part than others. This is because some carbon sources are easier to mitigate
than others. For example, electricity will need to be almost entirely de-carbonised and due
to the highly centralised nature of our current systems this is one that could be best
achieved. It’s therefore clear that the carbon emission intensity of electricity will significantly
improve between now and 2050. Such factors are not currently taken into account in the
comparison of embodied carbon and operational carbon of buildings. The outline analysis
presented in this Insight Article identifies how a more sophisticated view of future
operational carbon emissions is required.

1.3 About Sustain

Founded in 1997, Sustain Ltd is a leading carbon reduction company. Carbon presents
different threats to different organisations: rising costs, tougher legislation, energy security,
changing market demand, brand reputation. By reducing carbon we build organisational
resilience in our clients so they can survive and thrive in a carbon-constrained world. We
focus on key sectors where we can make a big difference: utilities, buildings, food and
drink, manufacturing, social housing and the public sector. Our long term, trust-based rela-
tionships with clients are evidence of more than a decade of analysing, advising on and
applying carbon reduction solutions.

The environmental accounting services (see appendix 1) include embodied carbon, carbon
footprinting (including organisational) and life cycle assessment (LCA). In addition, Sustain
were part of the pilot phase of the development of carbon labelling working with the Carbon
Trust and were employed by the Carbon Trust to help develop the PAS 2050 document.
Sustain is also currently contributing to the development of the upcoming GHG Protocol –
Product Carbon Footprint which will be published by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in
2011 and a member of the technical committee for the development of the ISO 14067
(Product Carbon Footprint) which is due to be published in 2012.

2 www.sustain.co.uk
Embodied Carbon: A Look Forward Sustain Ltd

Did you know that water taken from a bottled water cooler
is approximately 3 times higher carbon footprint than
water from a mains fed cooler?

Source: Sustain Ltd, 2010

2.0 Standards and Activities: Defining the Landscape

There are an increasing number of activities going on around embodied carbon and product
carbon footprinting, especially in the UK. Various activities to note include:

• The UK Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team (IGT), which was
chaired by Paul Morrell (the UK Government Chief Construction Advisor), published its
final report in Autumn 2010. The IGT was tasked by the government to consider how
the construction sector could meet the low carbon agenda. They made a number of
wider recommendations but specifically on embodied carbon:
o Recommendation 2.1: That as soon as a sufficiently rigorous assessment system
is in place, the Treasury should introduce into the Green Book a requirement to
conduct a whole-life (embodied + operational) carbon appraisal and that this is
factored into feasibility studies on the basis of a realistic price for carbon
o Recommendation 2.2: That the industry should agree with Government a
standard method of measuring embodied carbon for use as a design tool and (as
Recommendation 2.1 above) for the purposes of scheme appraisal.
• The Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) database from Professor Geoff Hammond at
the University of Bath and Craig Jones, now of Sustain, is published in a hardcopy
summary guide by the Building Services Research & Information Association (BSRIA).
It is available as a free excel file from the University of Bath web site or as a hardcopy
and pdf from BSRIA.
• The Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) Civil Engineering Standard Method of
Measurement 3 (CESMM3) now includes carbon and prices for every material and unit
of work. This enables users to calculate not just the economic, but also the embodied
carbon of projects.
• The Hutchins 2010 UK Building Blackbook (The Capital Cost and Embodied CO2
Guide, Volume two: major works) also now includes both cost and embodied carbon
for construction works.
• The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has established a working group
to examine embodied carbon and to also link it to the New Rules of Measurement
(NRM) framework being developed by the QS and Construction professional group to
ensure consistency and comparability of the data being produced. The first stage will
be to incorporate environmental measures, including embodied carbon, into the NRM
framework before tackling the more complex issues of developing a more detailed
methodology and database to underpin the calculations.
• The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) is publishing a short guide on
embodied carbon for their members. The guide will highlight some important issues
and highlight what a structural engineer can do to save embodied energy and carbon.

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• BS 8903:2010 Principles and Framework for Procuring Sustainably was released in

August 2010 by the British Standards Institute and with the help of DEFRA
(Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs). This guide outlines what
sustainable procurement is, why to procure sustainably and how to procure
sustainably. Carbon footprinting and other environmental impacts feature extensively
throughout this guide.
• PAS 2060:2010 Specification for the Demonstration of Carbon Neutrality has been
developed by British Standards Institute (BSI) along with a steering group of industry
representatives, government bodies and environmental organisations. Increased
claims of carbon neutrality that are not based on a recognised standard has lead to an
element of mistrust and scepticism as to how valid these claims are, and how they can
be substantiated. This has driven the need for the introduction of a common approach
with a recognised method of validation.

A free briefing document on the PAS 2060 standard can be downloaded at:

http://www.sustain.co.uk/resources/briefing-documents/pas-2060-carbon-neutrality-
briefing-document.aspx

In addition to the above activities there are several international standards under
development.
• Of most relevance to construction is the European CEN TC 350 series of standards
(intended to be released from spring-2011 onwards) which are on the “sustainability of
construction works”. The series includes a set method for calculating the embodied
impacts of construction materials and projects and a standard on the communication
of results (Environmental Product Declarations, EPDs). This series is expected to be
influential and, of importance, it offers a common calculation method for comparison
across Europe.
• The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD) joint developed a product and supply chain standard. This
includes two standards, a Product Accounting and Reporting Standard and the
Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard. Due spring
2011.
• A new French environmental labelling scheme which will be a national initiative (mid
2011) to inform consumers of the environmental impacts of mass products through
environmental labelling. It will involve displaying the carbon footprint and two other
appropriate environmental indicators for products on sale across all sectors. The
calculation standards have been drafted and now a pilot phase is about to begin.
Sustain are guiding their clients
through this pilot phase.
The current voluntary scheme is
part of a wider program to
include an environmental
component in consumer
purchasing choices to support
behavioural change; and to
provide the entire production and
distribution chain with new
indicators to encourage better
eco-designed products.
A free briefing document on the

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Embodied Carbon: A Look Forward Sustain Ltd

French environmental labelling initiative can be downloaded at:

http://www.sustain.co.uk/resources/briefing-documents/french-environmental-
labelling.aspx

• PAS 2050 on product carbon footprinting is due to be revised for a second release in
2011. PAS 2050 is a product carbon footprinting method from the UK Carbon Trust.
A free briefing document on the PAS 2050 standards can be downloaded at

http://www.sustain.co.uk/resources/briefing-documents/pas2050-briefing-
document.aspx

• The international Standards Organisation developed ISO/CD 14067 on the “carbon

footprint of products”, currently under development, is expected in 2012. This would
be the first internationally agreed standard (an ISO) on carbon footprinting calculation
methods.

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Embodied Carbon: A Look Forward Sustain Ltd

Did you know that 1 kg of beef requires 16,000 litres of

water to produce?

Source: Water Footprint Network, 2010

3.0 Embodied Versus Operational Carbon: A Look Forward

3.1 Background
The relationship between operational carbon and embodied carbon varies widely. This is
mainly as a result in large differences in the operational performance of buildings. However,
the thermal standards of new buildings are increasing and the UK Government is still
aspiring to bring 2016 zero carbon homes and 2019 zero carbon buildings (non-domestic)
into legislation. The definition of zero carbon is not going to include the embodied carbon of
construction. This implies that when zero carbon homes and buildings are introduced the
embodied carbon will be the only carbon burden remaining.

For new domestic buildings the embodied carbon was estimated to be equivalent to 12-19
years of operational carbon for an average new UK domestic dwelling (see Hammond and
Jones, 2009). This was estimated to the 2006 UK building regulations; although conversion
to the 2010 building regulations would expect embodied carbon to be more significant.
Non-domestic buildings have a greater diversity of types, sizes, applications and lifetimes.
The embodied carbon versus operational carbon results are therefore usually expressed as
a percentage of the whole life carbon emissions. A recent report from the South West
Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) on sustainable offices (SWRDA, 2010)
summarised that the embodied carbon impacts (construction, plus demolition) accounted
for approximately one third of the whole life carbon. Likewise the RICS redefining zero
report (Sturgis and Roberts, 2010) estimated the contribution of embodied carbon to be
20% for supermarkets, 30% for houses, 45% for offices and an incredible 60% for
warehouses. These are significant proportion and ones that are not currently given the
deserved attention for reduction. As thermal standards reduce embodied carbon is
becoming an ever important fraction of the whole life carbon burden. However, these
figures clearly show that embodied carbon from construction is already a significant burden
and one that needs due attention.

Despite the significance of embodied carbon in whole life calculations most are not being
calculated with a fair embodied carbon versus operational carbon comparison. It should be
noted that this statement is not being directed at the above two referenced studies; they
have both been discussed because they are providing a valuable contribution to knowledge
on the understanding on embodied impacts, whole life carbon and the breakdown. There
are also only a limited number of detailed and publically available studies. Furthermore, the
RICS report does discuss some elements of the future. Rather, it’s a general observation
that seems to be widespread in whole life carbon studies for construction.

As previously outlined the operational carbon occurs continually over many years. This
comes from a combination of heat and electricity. While heating systems need an active
participation from the building owners to reduce carbon emissions, those from grid
electricity do not. The first stage of the assessment is to examine the effect of greener
electricity in the future and up to the year 2050 on the whole life carbon of a building.

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3.2 The Future of Electricity

In the UK, like many industrialised

countries, electricity comes from a
centralised network. Coal, gas,
nuclear and a small amount of wind
and hydro make up the vast
majority of the electricity supply. In
the 1990’s the UK experienced a
rapid move away from oil and coal
towards gas fired generators. This
resulted in a large improvement in
the carbon emissions from a unit of
electricity. However there is much
work to be done to decarbonise the
UK electricity system. For the UK to
meet its ambitious target of a 80% economy wide GHG emission reduction electricity will
have a vital part to play. However a complete decarbonisation is perhaps unrealistic.

Even renewable energy systems have embodied carbon and fossil fuels would need to be
entirely removed from supply chains. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies
could play a vital part in the UK decarbonisation of electricity. If fitted to coal fired
generators it could capture 90% of the direct carbon dioxide emissions. However, it does
not capture the upstream emissions from coal mining and extraction, transportation and
refining. Therefore even a 90% reduction in GHG emissions from coal fired generation
requires considerable effort from all parts of the supply chain of coal fuel. A total
decarbonisation on a life cycle basis was therefore considered unrealistic. However the
electricity sector can still get very close.

For this report the 2050 pathways analysis from the Department for Energy and Climate
Change (DECC) has been employed (DECC, 2010). DECC presented a framework for
considering improvements in the carbon intensity of energy in the UK extrapolated out
towards 2050. One of their tools is an excel 2050 Pathways Calculator, which has been
used here, along with DECC’s example pathway A. These were used to model the future
carbon intensity of a unit of electricity. The DECC data only covers CO2. Sustain therefore
modified the data to represent GHG’s on a CO2e basis.

The DECC projections assume an increase in the UK’s population from 62 million in 2010
to almost 77 million inhabitants in 2050. Likewise it’s assumed that the number of
households grows from almost 27 million in 2010 to almost 40 million in 2050. These are
considerable increases and as a result of these and an element of electrification electricity
generation is modelled to increase from 380 TWh in 2010 to 850 TWh in 2050. This is
almost a 2.5 factor increase. Under this scenario nuclear, renewable, bio-energy and CCS
technologies all make important contributions.

In 2008 the UK had a carbon emission intensity of 0.617 kg CO2e per kWh (DEFRA, 2010).
This includes all three scopes on the GHG protocol and includes transmission and
distribution losses; all upstream emissions have been included in the numbers. It is
therefore in line with the thinking and approach of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and
embodied carbon assessment. This has been calibrated with the DECC CO2 only data and
is estimated that in 2011 the UK electricity factor will be equal to 0.584 kg CO2e per kWh
consumed. This is significant because if a building is constructed in the UK today then its
first year of operation will have this GHG intensity for electricity. The projected GHG
intensity of each unit of electricity under the DECC 2050 Pathway Analysis is displayed in
Figure 1.

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GHG Intensity of UK Electricity, 2010-2050

0.70

kg CO2e per Kwh Electricity 0.60

0.50

0.40

0.30

0.20

0.10

0.00
2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Year

Figure 1 – The GHG intensity of a kilowatt hour of electricity, 2010-2050

This is a dynamic look at the GHG emissions of electricity in the future. It has been named
so because there are dynamic changes to the electricity GHG emissions. In this scenario
by the year 2050 a kilowatt hour of electricity is estimated to release just 0.032 kg CO2e per
kWh of supply. This is roughly a 95% reduction per unit based on current figures. This type
of projection is not adopted in almost all current whole life carbon studies for buildings.
Instead they assume that operational carbon emissions remain the same throughout a
buildings lifetime. This is here referred to as a static projection of the GHG emissions to
operate a building. It is static because the analysis is projected as if everything is stuck in
time, i.e. its static.

Although a dynamic look into the future presents more uncertainty a static projection of
electricity is highly unrealistic. The future cannot be predicted with accuracy but this should
not stop us from producing best estimates when it is clear that change will occur.

Global GHG emissions need to go down. This will require considerable action from all
economic sectors and as previously discussed the electricity sector is expected to have an
important role to play. Buildings consume considerable amounts of electricity and therefore
even if the building occupiers and owners take no action to reduce carbon the annual
emissions of the building will reduce in the future.

It’s interesting to consider a scenario where each year a unit of electricity is consumed. In
the scenario that fails to consider any improvement in the GHG’s of electricity (a static
projection) the analysis gives 270 percent more GHG emissions into the atmosphere
than the analysis with a year on year improvement (a dynamic projection), as shown by the
shaded area in Figure 2.

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Static V Dymanic Projection of UK Electricity

0.70

kg CO2e per Kwh Electricity

Static Projection = No electricity improvements
0.60

0.50

0.40 Margin of Error

0.30

0.20 Dymanic Projection =

Elect. improvements
0.10

0.00
2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Year

Figure 2 – A static versus a dynamic projection of future electricity GHG intensity

Figure 2 is an area chart with two overlapping areas, one white and one red. The white
area is from the scenario in Figure 1. It is the dynamic projection of GHG emissions for a
unit of UK electricity where each year a GHG reduction is expected. The red area
represents the total GHG emissions for the static projection of GHG emissions. In this
assessment the GHG emissions are projected at 2011 rates forward, i.e. at 0.584 kg CO2e
per kWh. The visible red area in Figure 2 represents the margin of error that a study would
make if it did not consider improvements in the GHG’s from electricity.

As apparent by the red area in Figure 2 this is a significant oversight and one that whole life
carbon studies for construction are making at present. A building doesn’t only consume
electricity; it also requires energy to fuel the heating systems. At present this is typically
taken from fossil fuel resources. However, each building of a different type has its own
typical profile of electricity and heat consumption.

The following analysis is therefore extended to consider the typical energy profile and
embodied carbon of the selected building types.

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Did you know that electricity from coal fired generation

releases roughly 50% more CO2e per kwh than the UK grid
average?

Source: Sustain Ltd and ecoinvent, 2010

4.0 Results

4.1 A New Domestic Building

Sustain have estimated the heat and power consumption

for a new 3 bedroom semi-detached house in the UK
(brick, cavity, block construction). It’s assumed to be
thermally compliant with the 2010 UK building regulations
as calculated through SAP 2009. However, the SAP
model doesn’t consider electricity from appliances so
these have been estimated from typical consumption
2
figures for the UK. The house is assumed to be of 100 m
floor area with a single car driveway, a single garage and
is assumed to be on a housing development. The house
was estimated to release 3.9 tonnes CO2e in its first year
of operation. Whilst the GHG intensity of electricity
improves, this figure will reduce year on year. Of the
annual GHG emissions just over half was calculated to
come from electricity (51%). The remainder was assumed
to come from natural gas to heat the home.

The embodied carbon of this house, including the driveway, garage and connecting roads
and pathways of a housing development was estimated to be approximately 55 tonnes
CO2e from cradle-to-site for the 100 m2 semi-detached house.

The analysis here compares the scenario with a static projection of operational emissions
between now and 2050 and that with the improved electricity scenario. The former is often
completed in current whole life studies. The latter is more representative of our national and
global targets. Figure 3 shows the comparison. The graph shows the total carbon versus
the year after the construction date. If a building was constructed in 2011 the last year on
the graph is the year 2050.

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Embodied & Operational GHG emissions for a

Domestic Building
250

Total GHG Emissions - tCO2e 200

Margin of Error
150

100 Dymanic Electricity Projection

of Operational Carbon
50
Embodied Carbon
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Year after Construction
Static electricity GHG projection Dynamic electricity GHG projection Embodied

Figure 3 – Embodied and operational GHG emissions of a new domestic building,

2011 to 2050

In Figure 3 the blue area is the embodied carbon of construction (55 tCO2e). The green
area is a projection of operational carbon for the building with the year on year
improvements in electricity, i.e. the dynamic projection of electricity GHG emissions. The
red area is the difference between a straight line, static, projection of operational carbon
and the dynamic projection in the green area. The red area therefore represents the margin
of error in many whole life studies for domestic buildings. Under this scenario the static
projection overestimates the operational carbon by almost 50%. In other words the static
projection of operational carbon is 150% of the more realistic dynamic projection (or the
visible red area is 50% of the size of the green area). This is significant but it only considers
a very passive approach to GHG mitigation of a building owner or occupier.

The red area in Figure 3 is likely to be at the lower end of the margin of error. This is
because even with the improvements in GHG’s from electricity the building still falls short of
the level of GHG reduction that is necessary for the UK to meets its 2050 80% reduction
targets.

Building stock levels and the UK population are all projected to rise. Therefore for the UK to
achieve an 80% reduction on national 1990 levels each building will need to decarbonise
as much as it can, perhaps even a similar decarbonisation to the electricity sector will be
required. To achieve this the domestic building will need to undergo a low or zero carbon
refurbishment of its heating systems at some point in the future. A simplistic view was
assumed; that the building will retain UK grid electricity but undergo a zero carbon
refurbishment of the heating systems. If this was completed in 2040 the static projection
overestimates the operational carbon by as much as 80%. If the refurbishment occurs in
2030 the overestimation is an incredible 130%.

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4.2 A New Primary School

A new build primary school is used as

a non-domestic building case study. It
is assumed to have a floor area of
2
1,000 m for simplicity, although the
results will scale up or down to
alternative areas. Sustain estimated
the embodied carbon of the building,
including its playground, car park and
other external areas to be 780 tCO2e.

The operational carbon of non-

domestic buildings varies widely and
often the actual performance is worse
than the design carbon target. To
overcome this real operational data has been taken from the CarbonBuzz project, which is
freely available on the website (www.carbonbuzz.org). On this site users have recorded the
design GHG targets for their building. Some of these building then followed up this by
recording the actual operational GHG data for their buildings. The CarbonBuzz project has
real data for schools and this recorded use of gas and electricity has been taken for this
report. Once more the data has been converted to a CO2e basis. Using this data it was
estimated that the primary school release 15 tCO2e in operation from gas and a further 48
tCO2e from electricity consumption each year. It should be noted that these levels of
operational carbon do not represent well performing buildings. The CarbonBuzz data
shows how schools consume considerable amounts of electricity and more than their
design targets.

The analysis from the domestic building was extended to the primary school. Figure 4
shows the results for the embodied carbon versus the operational carbon of the primary
school up to the year 2050. It also shows the static and dynamic projection of future
electricity for the school.

Embodied & Operational GHG emissions for a

Primary School
3,500
Total GHG Emissions - tCO2e

3,000

2,500
Margin of Error
2,000

1,500
Dymanic Electricity Projection
of Operational Carbon
1,000

500 Embodied Carbon

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Year after Construction
Static electricity GHG projection Dynamic electricity GHG projection Embodied

Figure 4 – Embodied and operational GHG emissions of a new primary school, 2011
to 2050

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The results in Figure 4 are even more significant than for the domestic property. Once
more the blue area represents the embodied carbon, the green area the dynamic
(electricity) projection of operational GHG emissions and the red area is the margin of
error. Under this scenario the static projection overestimates the operational carbon by
almost 95%. In other words the static projection of operational carbon is almost twice the
more realistic dynamic projection (or the visible red area is almost the same size as the
green area). This is a two-fold margin of error in the GHG assessment of operational
emissions up to 2050 which is clearly significant.

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Did you know that a vegetarian meal is roughly half the

carbon footprint of a similar meal with meat?

Source: Sustain Ltd, 2010

5.0 Discussion

The outline analysis and results presented here are significant for a number of
reasons. They clearly show that a more sophisticated view of the future is required in
whole life carbon studies. The analysis here did not consider the end of life demolition
or deconstruction but it was sufficient to draw insightful conclusions. It also brings new
light to the still unanswered question of demolition and rebuild versus refurbishment.
There is no universal answer to this issue. However, the analysis here has a knock on
implication. As well as improvements in the GHG intensity of electricity it should be
expected for an improvement in embodied carbon of materials and activities. A
building constructed today should be expected to have a higher embodied carbon than
the same building constructed in 2030 or 2050. First of all there is the expected
improvement in carbon emissions from electricity, which has an indirect improvement
for all sectors and all manufacturing processes. Then there is the expected
improvement of carbon emissions from heat processes. To get the world’s economy
on a stable path considerable carbon improvements are required from all economic
sectors. Fuel switching, an increase in renewable energies and carbon capture
technologies will all be significant contributors to decarbonise the world’s economy.

The net effect of these improvements is that embodied carbon will also reduce in the
future. This makes it more valuable than ever to reduce embodied carbon burdens
today. If a carbon outlay can be delayed until the future then when it is actually needed
it will have a lower embodied carbon. Analysis should be completed on a
refurbishment versus rebuild scenario and embodied versus operational carbon should
be projected for both scenarios to determine if a large
embodied carbon outlay should be delayed, or if an
initial outlay now will pay back in the long term. This
analysis must consider the future improvement in
electricity and future improvement in the carbon
intensity of all activities in an economy.

Finally, it’s appreciated that the future cannot be

predicted with any level of accuracy, but this should
not stop us from producing best estimates, especially
where future change will clearly happen. It’s widely
agreed that global GHG emissions need to reduce
and considerable efforts will be made to ensure this
occurs. The analysis presented in this report is simple
to adopt and it offers an outline for how future whole
life carbon studies could account for the operational
GHG emissions in a building.

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Did you know that whole life carbon studies may be over-
estimating the total GHG emissions of electricity by as much
as 270% between now and 2050?

Source: Sustain Ltd, 2011

6.0 Conclusions
As thermal standards reduce embodied carbon is becoming an ever important fraction of
the whole life carbon burden. Current whole life carbon studies are already displaying a
significant contribution from embodied carbon. They clearly show that embodied carbon
from construction is already a significant burden and one that needs due attention. Recent
studies report 30-45% embodied carbon for offices and up to an incredible 60% for
warehouses. These are significant proportion and ones that are not currently given the
deserved attention for reduction.

Despite the significance of embodied carbon in whole life carbon studies most are not being
calculated with a fair embodied carbon versus operational carbon comparison. Operational
carbon occurs continually over many years. This comes from a combination of heat and
electricity. While heating systems need an active participation from the building owners to
reduce carbon emissions, those from grid electricity do not. Even with a very passive GHG
mitigation approach from building owners and occupiers an improvement in centralised
electricity will occur. Considering a year on year improvement in the GHG’s from electricity
the analysis showed that previous whole life carbon studies would over-estimate the
operational carbon by 50% for a typical new domestic building and by 95% for a new
primary school. The latter introduces almost a two-fold margin of error in the calculations
which is clearly significant. The analysis presented here offers a new dimension to
embodied carbon versus operational carbon and has knock on implications to the future
assessment of embodied carbon outlays.

Further Information

For further information on embodied carbon, operational carbon and product carbon
footprinting contact:

Craig Jones

Email: Craig.Jones@Sustain.co.uk
Tel: 0044 (0)1934 864 217

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References

Cherruault, Jean-Yves, 2010. PAS 2050 - Briefing Document, Sustain Ltd, available from
http://www.sustain.co.uk/resources/briefing-documents/pas2050-briefing-document.aspx

Cherruault, Jean-Yves, 2010. PAS 2060:2010 Specification for the demonstration of

carbon neutrality - Briefing Document, Sustain Ltd, available from
http://www.sustain.co.uk/resources/briefing-documents/pas-2060-carbon-neutrality-briefing-
document.aspx

Cherruault, Jean-Yves, 2010. French Environmental Labelling - Briefing Document,

Sustain Ltd, available from
http://www.sustain.co.uk/resources/briefing-documents/french-environmental-labelling.aspx

DECC, 2010. 2050 Pathways Analysis, Department of Energy and Climate Change
(DECC), HM Government, URN 10D/764, July 2010.

DEFRA, 2010. 2010 Guidelines to Defra / DECC's GHG Conversion Factors for Company
Reporting, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Hammond, Geoffrey P. and Craig I. Jones, 2009. 'Embodied Carbon: The Concealed
Impact of Residential Construction', in Global Warming: Engineering Solutions, chapter 23,
Springer, ISBN: 978-1-4419-1016-5.

Hammond, Geoffrey P. and Craig I. Jones, 2011. ‘Embodied Carbon. The Inventory of
Carbon and Energy (ICE)’, a joint venture of the University of Bath and the Building
Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA), BSRIA BG 10/2011, ISBN 978-0-
86022-703-8.

Sturgis, Simon and Gareth Roberts, 2010. Redefining Zero: Carbon profiling as a
solution to whole life carbon emission measurement in buildings, RICS Research Report,
May 2010.

SWRDA, 2010. Sustainable offices. Non-technical executive summary, South West

Regional Development Agency (SWRDA)

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Appendix 1: Environmental Accounting Services at Sustain Ltd

Our complete range of services
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Product carbon footprints (including PAS 2050 and embodied carbon)
• Organisational carbon footprints
• Supply chain analysis
• Environmental communication support
• Strategy and policy support (inc. Carbon Reduction Commitment and Carbon Disclosure Project)
• Voluntary carbon offsetting
• Training and support
• Peer review and auditing

Our track record

We have over 11 years experience in a broad range of markets. A small selection from our track record:

• We worked with the Carbon Trust to develop PAS 2050

• We are a member of the technical committee for ISO 14067 on Product Carbon Footprints
• A Footprint Expert™ accredited consultancy, through the Carbon Trust Footprinting Company
• Contributed to the upcoming WRI/WBCSD Footprinting standard
• Guiding clients through the pilot phase of the WRI/WBCSD standard
• Guiding clients through the pilot phase of the new French Environmental Labelling Initiative
• LCA of new stores for Marks and Spencer
• Footprint of Sentinel cleaners and inhibitors
• Carbon footprint of LINPAC crates
• Carbon footprint of PHS water cooler
• PAS 2050 of Kingsmill bread
• Carbon footprint of Strawberries for The Co-Operative
• Carbon footprint of Otarian’s restaurant menus

Our people
Our people set us apart. At Sustain we have a highly trained, motivated and approachable team. Key
personnel include:

Dr Jean-Yves Cherruault is the manager of environmental accounting services and is a successful

chartered mechanical engineer and environmental consultant. Jean-Yves, originally from France, is
educated to PhD level with over 12 years of UK based professional experience in project management,
consultancy, research and development.

Matthew Fishwick is naturally talented with a first class honours degree in Environmental Science (BSc),
an MRes with distinction in Clean Chemical Technology and is studying for an MSc in Environmental
Toxicology. Matt has a broad experience of LCA and product carbon footprinting, having undertaken over
100 product assessments in the food, construction and chemical sectors.

Craig Jones has a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering (MEng) from the University of
Bath. He is a leading embodied carbon expert and is well known through his work on the Inventory of
Carbon & Energy (ICE) database. Craig has published scientific articles on embodied carbon, carbon
footprinting and LCA and has presented to varied audiences around the world.

Desiree Hanssen is a dedicated researcher and offers invaluable project support. Also known as Daisy
she is originally from the Netherlands but has worked in the UK for over 10 years. She is fluent in English,
Dutch and German.

17 www.sustain.co.uk