What does embodied carbon refer to?

Embodied carbon specifically refers to the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of building materials and the construction processes used to create a structure. This includes the extraction, manufacturing, transportation, assembly, and eventual disposal of materials. Understanding embodied carbon is crucial in the context of sustainability and environmentally conscious design because it accounts for the carbon footprint created before the building begins to operate.

The concept of embodied carbon emphasizes the impacts that the entire life cycle of building materials has on the environment, rather than just the operational emissions that occur while the building is in use. Hence, thinking about choices that do not encompass the holistic view of material impacts or only consider specific emissions categories would fall short of capturing the full scope of embodied carbon.