Our professional team of Sustainable Building assessors provide Operational & Embodied Carbon and Whole Life Carbon Assessments to help design teams and clients identify, measure and reduce carbon emissions in your building construction projects.

What is Operational Carbon and Embodied Carbon?

Operational carbon refers to;

‘the emissions associated with energy used to operate the building or in the operation of infrastructure’.

This includes heating, hot water, cooling, ventilation, lighting systems, equipment and lifts.  This is quite often what people focus on when thinking about how to make a building more sustainable.  However, operational carbon only makes up a certain percentage of a buildings total emissions………………….

Embodied Carbon refers to;

‘the remaining emissions associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole lifecycle of a building or infrastructure’. 

This is typically associated with any processes, materials or products used to construct, maintain, repair, refurbish and demolish a building.

By understanding the embodied carbon associated with a building project, designers, builders, and facility managers can look for solutions that reduce both operational and embodied emissions.  This ensures buildings are designed sustainably from both a construction and operational perspective.  

Embodied carbon can be further broken down into ‘upfront’, ‘in use’ and ‘end of life’ emissions. 

Upfront embodied carbon – refers to ‘the emissions caused in the materials production and construction phases of the lifecycle before the building or infrastructure begins to be used.

In-use embodied carbon refers to ‘emissions associated with materials and processes needed to maintain the building or infrastructure during use such as refurbishments’.

End-of-life embodied carbon refers to the carbon emissions associated with deconstruction/demolition, transport from site, waste processing and disposal phases of a building or infrastructure’s lifecycle which occur after its use.

Why is it so important?

If the built environment is to reach net zero by 2050 it drastically needs to reduce its carbon emissions.  A deep understanding of the types of carbon that make up the built environment is therefore imperative.  By understanding the makeup of an organisation or building's emissions, more effective carbon reduction solutions can be enabled.

To discuss your embodied carbon assessment needs further, please don’t hesitate to contact our dedicated team of assessors who would be delighted to answer any questions, please contact 01554 571010 or email admin@melinconsultants.co.uk.