Life cycle carbon emissions and comparative evaluation of selected open source UK embodied carbon counting tools

Damilola Ekundayo, Solomon Olusola Babatunde, Aisha Ekundayo, Srinath Perera, Chika Udeaja

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Life cycle carbon emissions (LCO2), made up of operational and embodied carbon, have become a major metric of building environmental performance and energy efficiency. Whilst there are now standard methods for operational carbon assessment due to its significance in LCO2, there is still less emphasis on embodied carbon counting. However, the relative contribution of embodied carbon is on the rise as buildings become increasingly energy efficient. Following the rule that only something which is measurable is manageable, it is essential that we are able to accurately count embodied carbon. This study therefore reviews the concept of LCO2 in buildings and further investigates the open source UK tools for embodied carbon counting. A comparative evaluation case study, which validates an earlier review, showed that there is no logic and consistency in the carbon figures produced by embodied carbon counting tools. This is mainly due to different system boundaries, varying underlying assumptions and methodological differences in calculation. The findings suggest that an industry-agreed data structure and common methodology is needed for embodied carbon counting. Generally, the study provides insights into the use and capabilities of the identified open source UK embodied carbon counting tools and is relevant to the on-going debate about carbon regulation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)220-242
Number of pages23
JournalConstruction Economics and Building
Volume19
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2019 by the author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.

Keywords

  • Great Britain
  • carbon
  • carbon dioxide mitigation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Life cycle carbon emissions and comparative evaluation of selected open source UK embodied carbon counting tools'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this