Buildings currently account for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from the energy needed to heat, cool and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and construction [1]. As building codes improve to encourage greater energy efficiency in buildings, and as more of the world's energy sources shift to renewable energy, the carbon from emissions associated with the operational phase of buildings will decrease, and the carbon associated with materials and construction will become the largest part of the building footprint. Measures are therefore needed to ensure that carbon is reduced at all stages of a building's life cycle.
How to reduce embodied carbon
Firstly, it is essential to fully assess the carbon footprint of a building throughout its life cycle. This means conducting a lifecycle carbon assessment at the building level. The building level assessment should include materials, construction, transportation of materials, operational impacts and end-of-life considerations.
Based on a complete assessment, it is possible to plan to reduce a building's carbon footprint[2]. We believe that it is important to create the right policy framework that addresses the embodied carbon of the materials used to create a building without negatively impacting the carbon impact of the building in use and therefore its whole life carbon footprint.
To enable such assessments, manufacturers should publish independently verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for their products. Such EPDs include a metric for embodied carbon, among other impacts, and take into account the end of life of materials. The assessment should be carried out by trained experts using a common approach. The starting point for such an approach is already available and in use in the form of the series of standards produced by CEN/TC 350, i.e. EN 15804 et al.
However, there are problems with EPDs that need to be addressed. There are no common rules (Product Category Rules or PCRs) on how to apply the standard. Each EPD scheme owner can adopt its own PCRs as they stand. EPDs are produced using impact data sets for the raw materials used in the manufacture of the product. There are several databases containing different datasets that produce different results, and these datasets may be generic or not always well matched to the raw materials used in the specific product.
Today, there is no requirement for EPD data to be provided by a manufacturer, although it is intended that the EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR) will require this in the future. However, when this happens, there will be products for which the CPR will not apply because there is no harmonised standard, so there will still be no universal requirement.
As a general principle, carbon comparisons should only be made on a whole-building, whole-life basis, as the choice of some materials not only affects the operational emissions of a building, but can also influence the choice of other materials and the quantities of those materials that may be required. However, since it is an inevitable fact that comparisons will be made between the embodied carbon of building materials, however problematic this may be, the person making the comparison needs to consider the following.
The way in which manufacturers choose to compile EPDs can vary. For insulation in particular, the unit of comparison of EPDs (their "functional unit") should be based on equivalent thermal performance using the actual density of the products being compared, rather than a simple weight or volume comparison. Because different insulation materials have very different thermal properties, they require very different thicknesses to achieve the same performance. Similarly, because they have very different densities, the weights of the products can be very different to achieve the same performance. A simple comparison per m3 or per kg is likely to result in a highly skewed and unreliable comparison of EPD data.
Another issue for long-life products such as insulation is the assessment of the impact of the product at the end of its life. Today, most EPDs will assume that insulation is either landfilled or incinerated at the end of its life. Both end-of-life options have a global warming impact and therefore embodied carbon. However, neither of these practices is likely to exist or be used in the same way 60 years from now, when the products sold today are likely to be removed from a building. The impact assessment is therefore likely to be misleading.
Our commitments
Paroc Panel System has developed EPDs for its high-performance insulated panel products. The majority of our AST panels are already covered in key markets.
The embodied carbon in products is largely dependent on the raw materials we purchase from our suppliers to manufacture our products. To address this, as part of 10-year Planet Passionate programme, we are committed to achieving a 50% reduction in the embodied carbon intensity of the raw materials we purchase from our key suppliers by 2030, with an initial focus on steel and chemical suppliers.
In 2024, we launched the LEC (Lower Embodied Carbon) product range, which enables up to a 55% reduction in embodied carbon compared to standard products. A life cycle assessment of the AST® L LEC panel, for example, shows a 55% reduction in embodied carbon for modules A1–A3, and 53% for modules A–C, compared to the corresponding AST® L panel of 80 mm thickness, in accordance with EN 15804:2012+A2:2019/AC:2021. This marks a significant step toward emission neutrality in the construction sector!
Collaboration
We are working with the World Green Building Council on its work to promote net zero carbon buildings through its global Advancing Net Zero project.
Our Group is investing in H2 Green Steel, a company pioneering new low-carbon steel production methods using hydrogen. The intention is to enter into a long-term supply agreement with H2 Green Steel to provide a significant proportion of our future steel requirements. Kingspan is the first building materials company to commit to sourcing H2 Green Steel on a large scale.
[1] World Green Building Council: “Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront” report https://worldgbc.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/22123951/WorldGBC_Bringing_Embodied_Carbon_Upfront.pdf
[2] Paroc Panel System has undertaken studies on the embodied carbon of its material compared to other alternatives – as well as the embodied carbon of the material compared in a Whole Life Cycle assessment with the energy savings over a lifetime coming from the use of the material. See both case studies at the Planet Passionate Annual Report.
