The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) is a signatory to a new report from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), which calls for a bold new vision to reduce emissions.
The plan will transform the buildings and construction sector from a major cause into a major solution in respect to the climate emergency, securing a safe future for generations to come.
Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront, shows that buildings are responsible for 39% of global carbon emissions.
Reducing the emissions of the building sector is one of the cheapest ways to lower emissions and combat climate change, according to ASBEC president, Ken Maher.
Until now, the focus has been on ‘operational carbon’ - the emissions produced by heating, lighting, and cooling our buildings once they are built.
But ‘Embodied carbon’ – the emissions produced making, transporting, and disposing of building materials – has largely been overlooked, but it contributes around 11% of global emissions.
“The WorldGBC’s vision that by 2030 all new buildings, infrastructure and renovations will have at least 40% less embodied carbon with significant upfront carbon reduction, and all new buildings must rational carbon to even begin work in Australia Professor Maher,” Maher said.
Many of the products used in Australian buildings have international life cycles. Raw material might be mined in one country, transported to another for manufacture, and then brought here to Australia to be used and disposed of at the end of their useful life.
ASBEC executive director, Suzanne Toumbourou, said the carbon used in all these processes should be accounted for and reduced.
She said Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront proposes a coherent set of tools for accounting for this carbon in building products.
“The report makes it clear that the building sector needs to take coordinated action to understand product lifecycles and processes. Here in Australia, ASBEC creates collaboration across the building sector to achieve a common vision and establish clear policy pathways to lowering emissions,” Toumbourou said.
“We showcase the fact that many of our market-leading members are already demonstrating best practice when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.”
“Global companies like Skanska have said they are willing to work on this, and Australian company Lendlease is used as an example of best practice in Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront, for their work with engineered timber. By adopting the tools in the report, we’ll know how much carbon has been emitted in the production of building materials, so we can compare like with like,” Toumbourou said.
The WorldGBC states that by 2020, all countries need to create national roadmaps to net zero. ASBEC has partnered with ClimateWorks Australia to create Built to Perform, an industry-led roadmap to a zero carbon-ready zero building code. And the Council of Australian Governments Energy Council has created the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings, both of which focus on operational emissions.
ASBEC’s advocacy has helped inform Australia’s national and state governments in their move towards net zero building operations. The next step is to work together on progressive embodied carbon reduction targets.
“Climate change and rising emissions are a global challenge. The fact that the buildings and construction sector operates at global scale means it’s a complex task to understand exactly what emissions are created by the entire life cycle of our buildings," she said.
"By understanding and addressing this life cycle, we can deliver a powerful response to the challenge of climate change, and build a better future for all of us."