Embodied carbon mitigation strategies in the construction industry

The building sector contributes up to 36% of carbon emissions emphasizing the importance of carbon management. Carbon emissions in buildings are classified into two main types; embodied carbon and operational carbon. Operational carbon refers to emissions, which occur during the operational phase of a building. Embodied carbon is the fuel and process related carbon emitted during material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, distribution, construction, disposal and reuse. Creating zero carbon projects, where the operational carbon is reduced to zero, has become a trend, which may intern reduce operational carbon by adding to embodied carbon. Therefore, reducing the overall carbon emissions in construction projects, has become intricately important. Hence, the study aims at identifying embodied carbon mitigation strategies to reduce the embodied carbon emissions in construction projects. Initially, a comprehensive literature review was carried out to identify the embodied carbon mitigation strategies recognised by various researchers. The literature findings and the data gathered from a roundtable expert forum was analysed to derive at conclusions in this regard. 36 experts attended the expert forum, who actively participated in discussion and contributed to the findings. A total of 22 embodied carbon mitigation strategies were identified through literature and the expert forum. These mitigation strategies can be implemented by the industry practitioners to reduce the embodied carbon emissions in the construction projects.