Government’s green building reform to consider ’embodied carbon’
Do you know how much carbon will be emitted by your home or office over its lifespan? The Government’s green building overhaul, announced this month, aims to tell you that – and set a slowly sinking limit on emissions.
As houses, factories and offices contribute an estimated 20 per cent of the country’s carbon footprint, an industry revamp could make a significant difference to emissions.
The plan to measure and cap what the industry calls “embodied carbon” – greenhouse gas produced by a building’s materials, construction, maintenance, demolition and waste disposal – is one of several initiatives in the Building for Climate Change work programme.
It’s an ambitious plan by global standards. Some countries, such as France, have voluntary schemes to measure and reduce embodied carbon. Others, including the Czech Republic, Denmark and Germany, are considering similar proposals to our Government’s, said building life-cycle expert Chanjief Chandrakumar .
But so far only cities, including Vancouver and Zurich, have introduced regulations to measure and reduce buildings’ whole-of-life carbon footprints. Embodied carbon limits will take the country “in the right direction”, Chandrakumar said.
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