Embodied Carbon Measurement, Mitigation and Management Within Europe, Drawing on a Cross-Case Analysis of 60 Building Case Studies: Embodied Carbon in Buildings: Measurement, Management, and Mitigation

Embodied carbon is, to some extent, an odd beast. Its importance is evident and the beneficial consequences of its reduction undeniable. We know that the built environment is a major source of our carbon excesses, yet most policies focus only on part of the picture by capping operational energy consumption, for the use of buildings. We also know that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that carbon reductions are needed now, not in 30 years’ time. Lowering the immediate emissions related to current building construction and demolition, the embodied carbon, is an obvious way to do so. In recent years, research on embodied carbon has therefore increased. Many fields of research develop steadily over the years, led by a small and coherent community of experts. Others quietly die, as the world moves on. Yet, for a very few topics, a moment comes when the world suddenly wakes up to their importance, and interest and attention start to snowball. This is such a moment for the subject of this book, the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the construction of buildings. Within this snowballing, of industry consultancies producing tools, of manufacturers benchmarking their products, of academics working together on major projects and even of the rumblings of political and regulatory change, there is, however, a real danger that the knowledge will become so dispersed that any real progress will be lost. Instead of forming a coherent body of work to inform policy and evoke real change in how we construct our built environment, we run the real risk of finding ourselves in a meaningless avalanche of disconnected ideas. This book, therefore, sets out to perform a vital task – to extract coherence, not chaos, from this outpouring of intellectual endeavour. Following the Paris Agreement, many nations have revamped their carbon plans, climate change drafts and carbon reduction targets. Embodied Carbon Measurement, Mitigation and Management Within Europe, Drawing on a Cross-Case Analysis of 60 Building Case Studies