As the homebuilding sector rapidly reduces the ’operational’ carbon emissions of new homes through new standards in 2021 and 2025, the next big area of focus is the ‘embodied’ emissions arising in the products, construction and maintenance of homes and how that contributes to Whole Life Carbon (WLC) performance of homes.
This report summarises the first phase of work undertaken by the homebuilding industry in collaboration with relevant government, expert and stakeholder bodies through the Future Homes Hub to tackle embodied and whole life carbon in new homes.
The aims of this initial phase of work were to:
- establish an initial baseline of whole life carbon emissions for new homes
- evaluate the potential to reduce embodied and whole life carbon
- propose a framework of measurement suitable for new homes
- develop a roadmap and implementation plan to support the sector in measuring and reducing whole life carbon.
The report sets out key outcomes for the sector that, even after 2025, remain a good reference point for our direction of travel.
Click here to find out more about how the Future Homes Hub’s workstreams on embodied and whole life carbon have progressed – including with measurement, benchmarking and identifying options to reduce embodied carbon.