All You Need to Know About Embodied Carbon Of Concrete

The construction sector has been concentrating its efforts on reducing operating emissions from lighting, heating, cooling, hot water, and other plug loads for a number of years. As a result, it made significant progress toward adopting renewable energy sources and increasing efficiencies. Embodied carbon of concrete is a different building-related source of emissions that we must address right away.

Embodied Carbon of concrete: What is it?

In contrast to operational carbon, embodied carbon of concrete refers to the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by the materials, manufacturing, and construction processes over the course of a product’s, building’s, or infrastructure’s whole lifecycle.

Any CO2 released is included in the term “embodied carbon”:

When conveying the materials to the job site after the building materials have been manufactured (material extraction, delivery to the manufacturer, manufacturing).

By the building techniques employed When preserving the structure When finally dismantling the structure, transporting the debris, and reusing it

By the time building materials get to the project site, some of the embodied carbon of concrete has already entered the environment. Because of this, it’s essential that the building sector concentrates on embodied carbon right now.

Construction’s Embodied Carbon Problem

In recent years, the embodied carbon of concrete has been under the spotlight due to improvements in operational carbon reduction. According to research by the World Green Building Council, embedded carbon contributes more to a building’s overall carbon footprint than was previously believed.

Why Concrete and Why Now?

As the world’s carbon emissions must be cut in half by 2030 to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, this decade represents our final opportunity to combat climate change.

Around 40% of emissions worldwide come from buildings. It is crucial that the construction community recognises its role in reducing the sector’s carbon footprint and knows how to use the tools available to help them because the world’s building stock is predicted to double by 2060, which is the equivalent of adding an entire New York City to the planet every month for the next 40 years.

For the producers of concrete, the anticipated construction boom is excellent news. However, one of the main sources of CO2 emissions in the built environment is cement, the essential component that gives concrete its strength.

Since cement production accounts for about 7% of global yearly CO2 emissions and since concrete is the most common human-made material, it is one of the main sources of embodied carbon in the built environment.

Dealing with Embodied Carbon of concrete

The embodied carbon of a building can be decreased in a number of ways, including:

1. Define low-carbon concrete mixtures

Modifying the specifications for concrete is one of the simplest ways to reduce embodied carbon in concrete. Concrete is often the largest source of embodied carbon in any project due to its weight and popularity. By adding fly ash, slag, calcined clays, or by permitting manufacturers to apply carbon mineralization technology like CarbonCure, structural engineers can demand lower carbon concrete mixtures.

2. Material reuse and recycling

Salvage components like brick, metal, cracked concrete, or water whenever you can.

Since the carbon used to produce recycled materials has already been used up, they often have a significantly lower embodied carbon footprint than virgin materials.

Reclaimed water from concrete truck washouts can be utilised, which cuts down on waste while saving energy that would have been used to manufacture and transport virgin cement to the plant.

3. Lessen your reliance on decorative elements.

Nowadays, finishing with structural materials is fairly common. They reduce embodied carbon significantly while also having a nice appearance. For instance, polished concrete slabs instead of carpet or vinyl flooring as completed flooring save embodied carbon.