Policy efforts to decarbonise Europe’s building stock have, so far, focused on energy efficiency measures and thereby reducing the energy demand, and related carbon emissions, for heating, cooling and lighting of the building during its operational lifetime. This is a well-justified focus but only part of the overall effort needed to achieve a climate-neutral Europe. With the drive towards reducing in-use energy to “nearly zero”, the other sources of carbon emissions from buildings become increasingly important and therefore a vital part of future carbon reduction plans. For new buildings built to the highest energy efficiency standards, the extremely low operational energy requirements mean that embodied carbon becomes the most significant area of carbon emissions over the lifetime of the building. 

Background: 

The ongoing review of key policy and legislative files such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) provides a significant opportunity for the European Union to begin consistently integrating whole-life carbon (WLC) principles in the regulatory framework. Actions at the building level must also be well-coordinated and aligned with policy actions upstream on raw materials and construction products, as well as with end-of-life policies addressing waste and closing the loop/increasing circularity. Equally, setting carbon disclosure and reporting obligations at the market level will help establish WLC accounting and management practices as well as help identify risks and allocate capital to climate-neutral solutions and investments. 

Carbon metrics are needed to align building policies and incentives with carbon-neutrality goals. Energy efficiency will certainly deliver significant carbon emissions reductions, but not necessarily zero emissions because emissions from the manufacturing, construction and renovation processes are not accounted for, and not all carbon emissions are energy related. 

Energy and carbon metrics are complementary. Having both energy and carbon metrics will help with understanding the relationship between improving operational emissions and the related carbon costs of doing so. Both metrics are required to avoid easy substitutions and carbon offsetting in place of improvements to the building envelope and efficiency. Disregarding WLC runs the risk that construction and renovation decisions ignore these hidden emissions. Considering lifecycle carbon is equally relevant for new construction and renovations, and it can inform which materials and services should be used to achieve lower emissions over the entire lifecycle of the asset.