A national environmental impact standard to measure embodied carbon need to measure both ongoing and future impact, according to Think Brick Australia.
The building industry is working towards a national framework for a total embodied carbon rating system to measure the environmental impact of a building.
This move will provide clarity for manufacturers to offer architects and engineers.
There are four standards commonly used and many stop measuring the impact at the building site – the ‘cradle to gate’ measure.
Over a 50-year lifecycle, nearly 90 per cent of a building’s emissions are generated by operational functions – primarily heating and cooling.
Think Brick Australia chief executive Elizabeth McIntyre said it’s vital to include these emissions in an environmental impact analysis.
McIntyre said: “In developing a national standard, are we looking at the whole picture?”
“To bring the current impact measures into a uniform, national standard, we can go further than the variations of traditional lifecycle assessments currently in use.
“The standards commonly in use in Australia take a ‘cradle to gate’ approach, only measuring the environmental impact of building materials during product extraction and manufacture.
“Others take the ‘cradle to grave’ approach – including raw materials, water, emerging in production, and waste and emissions.
“This is where many standards end.
“Think Brick Australia has invested research into understanding the total lifecycle assessment.
“This measures the effects of the material’s use in construction, maintenance, and disposal, and it measures the environmental effect of operational emission from living in a building.”
Think Brick has been investigating the total lifecycle of building materials since instigating the brick industry’s first broad-scale, peer-reviewed research in 2008.
A total lifecycle assessment can measure operational and embodied emissions for a complete picture into the energy efficiency and environmental impacts of buildings.