Time to talk about embodied carbon!
“We have known for a long time, about the importance of whole life carbon in the built environment, but recent focus has been on the use phase and on energy-intensive industries, which produce essential products for construction” says Søren Adamsen, Vice President and Chair of the EFCA’s European Green Deal Committee, as the federation’s position paper on whole life carbon is published. The document tackles the inevitable trade-offs encountered in efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment, as well as the need for harmonised measurement and reliable data.
EFCA supports the EU's commitment to decarbonise the construction ecosystem. However, the focus cannot only be on buildings, with infrastructure also having huge potential for improvement. ”A holistic approach that embraces purpose-driven and future-proof design will deliver the best overall results” says Adamsen. “This entails prioritising flexibility, aligning with related policies such as the Construction Products Regulation, the European Performance of Building Directive and Taxonomy, and fostering further investments and research”.
Supporting an EU-wide approach, to reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment, EFCA encourages strengthening already existing regulatory measures, while avoiding over-zealous requirements, which risk counter-productive, rigid compliance, that does not take into account the best overall design.