How to Reduce Embodied Carbon in Buildings: A Practical Guide For The Built Environment

For decades, reducing a building’s carbon footprint has meant tackling the energy it uses: better insulation, efficient heating systems, cleaner electricity. These measures still matter and still work. But they only address part of the problem. The carbon emitted in producing, transporting, and assembling the materials that make up a building is a separate problem altogether. It exists before the building opens, and once the construction decisions are made, it cannot be changed.

Buildings are currently responsible for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions, from energy needed to heat, cool, and power them, and the remaining 11% from materials and construction. As operational carbon falls through tighter energy standards and grid decarbonisation, the embodied carbon share rises. For many new builds today, embodied carbon already represents the majority of the building's total lifecycle emissions, and unlike operational carbon, it cannot be addressed after construction decisions have been made.

This shift is not a gradual trend. It is a structural change in how a building's total carbon footprint is composed. As operational performance improves, the carbon locked into materials, structure, and construction process becomes an increasingly significant share of what remains. For sustainability professionals working in real estate, construction, and infrastructure, the practical question is how to reduce it, when, and by how much.

What is embodied carbon in buildings?

Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the materials and construction processes of a building across its full lifecycle. This includes raw material extraction, manufacturing, transport, construction, maintenance and replacement over time, and end-of-life demolition and disposal.

Operational carbon is produced by running the building: heating, cooling, lighting, and power. Embodied carbon is everything else. Together they make up a building's whole-life carbon footprint.

The critical difference is timing. Operational carbon can be reduced over time through efficiency improvements, equipment upgrades, or switching to cleaner energy sources. Embodied carbon is largely locked in at the point when design and procurement decisions are made. Once a building is constructed, the carbon embedded in its structure cannot be retrieved. This is why decisions made at the earliest stages of a project have a disproportionate influence on embodied carbon outcomes, and why late-stage interventions are both costly and limited in impact.

Why embodied carbon is getting harder to ignore

Three forces are converging to move embodied carbon from a specialist concern to a mainstream reporting and procurement issue:

1. The operational carbon floor is getting lower.

As building energy codes tighten and grids decarbonise, the embodied carbon share of whole-life emissions is rising. The built environment generates 42% of annual global GHG emissions, 15% of which comes from building materials and construction processes. The better a building performs operationally, the more the embodied carbon stands out. 

2. Investor and certification pressure is growing.

Green building certification schemes including Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), and WELL Building Standard (WELL) are increasingly incorporating embodied carbon metrics. In the 2025 GRESB Real Estate Assessment, 50% of all development participants report measuring embodied carbon emissions from new construction assets and major renovation projects, up from 31% in 2024 and 24% in 2023. Investor ESG requirements are driving the same direction: embodied carbon data is moving from voluntary disclosure toward expected practice. 

3. Regulation is beginning to catch up.

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive’s (EPBD) whole-life carbon requirements, which mandate lifecycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) calculations for new buildings above 1,000 square metres from 2028, are the most significant regulatory development. In the UK, the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment Professional Statement sets the methodology standard for whole-life carbon assessments, and pressure is building toward mandatory whole-life carbon assessments in planning policy. The World Green Building Council has set a target that by 2030, all new buildings and renovations should have at least 40% less embodied carbon.

Where embodied carbon comes from in a building

Not all materials contribute equally to a building's embodied carbon total. In most building types, concrete and steel dominate, because the structural frame uses the most material by volume. Cladding, insulation, and building services such as heating, ventilation, and electrical systems contribute smaller but still significant shares.

The lifecycle stage breakdown is equally important. Embodied carbon is categorised across lifecycle modules in line with the EN 15978 European standard for assessing building environmental performance and RICS methodology. The upfront carbon stages cover raw material extraction, manufacturing, transport, and construction completion. In lifecycle assessment methodology these are referred to as modules A1 to A5. This is where the majority of a building's embodied carbon is generated and, critically, where the most intervention is possible. Decisions made at these stages determine the carbon trajectory of the building. Later stages, covering maintenance, replacement, and end-of-life, contribute additional emissions but offer fewer opportunities for early-stage reduction.

How to reduce embodied carbon in buildings

Reducing embodied carbon is not a single intervention. It is a set of decisions made across design, procurement, and construction, most of which are most effective when made early. The following strategies cover the highest-impact levers across the building lifecycle, from how a structure is designed to how materials are sourced and what happens to them at end of life.

Design efficiency

‍The most carbon-efficient building uses less material. Optimising structural geometry, reducing floor plate depths, and avoiding over-specification of structural elements can reduce material quantities significantly without compromising performance. Every tonne of concrete or steel that is not specified is embodied carbon that is not emitted.

Material choice

‍Where materials are required, lower-carbon alternatives exist for most high-impact applications. Low-carbon concrete mixes that replace a proportion of cement with industrial by-products can reduce the carbon intensity of concrete by 30 to 50% or more. Engineered timber products offer structural performance with significantly lower embodied carbon than concrete or steel equivalents. Recycled steel reduces the carbon impact of steel fabrication. Making these choices requires reliable, material-level carbon data, which is where Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) become essential. An EPD is a third-party verified document declaring the environmental impact of a specific construction product across its lifecycle.

Retrofit and adaptive reuse over new build

‍The most carbon-efficient building is often one that already exists. Adaptive reuse of existing structures avoids the upfront carbon cost of new construction entirely, retaining the embodied carbon already invested in the existing building. Where new construction is necessary, this logic extends to designing for longevity, to ensure the embodied carbon investment is spread over the longest possible building life.

Design for disassembly and circularity

‍Buildings designed so that materials can be recovered and reused at end of life reduce the embodied carbon cost of future construction. This requires connections that can be disassembled, materials that can be separated, and documentation that allows future users to understand what has been built and how.

Procurement and supply chain engagement

‍Embodied carbon reduction requires supplier engagement. Requiring EPDs from materials suppliers, setting embodied carbon targets in procurement contracts, and engaging the supply chain early in the design process all move the lever in the right direction. Companies that embed these requirements consistently create market pressure for suppliers to improve their carbon data and product performance.

The role of measurement and data

The decisions that determine a project's embodied carbon outcome are made at the start of a project, not the end. A whole-life carbon assessment (WLCA) carried out at the start of a project, before structural and material decisions are made, gives teams the information they need to reduce it. By the time those decisions are fixed, the opportunity to reduce embodied carbon has largely passed.

EPDs are the primary data input for a building-level WLCA, providing product-level carbon data with third-party verification. The Construction Products Regulation, updated in November 2024, is pushing EPD standardisation across the EU to support the EPBD's whole-life carbon requirements, making EPD provision an increasingly standard expectation for construction materials suppliers.

For property companies and developers managing portfolios, structured carbon data infrastructure that connects project-level embodied carbon data to corporate Scope 3 reporting is becoming a practical necessity, particularly as investor reporting and CSRD disclosures increasingly require portfolio-level embodied carbon data.

Where to start with embodied carbon reduction

For sustainability professionals working in the built environment, the following three actions have the highest leverage. They are not sequential steps but parallel priorities, each reinforcing the others:

• Measure early. Commission a whole-life carbon assessment at concept or scheme design stage, not at planning or technical design. The earlier the assessment, the greater the influence on outcomes. Use EPD data where available and document the data sources used.
• Set targets in procurement. Embodied carbon targets in construction contracts and supplier requirements for EPD provision move the market. Consistent requirements across the supply chain build market pressure over time and improve the quality of available carbon data.
• Connect building data to portfolio disclosures. Building-level embodied carbon data feeds Scope 3 Category 1 emissions for companies procuring construction. Integrating project-level WLCA data into corporate carbon accounting and CSRD disclosures connects project-level action to portfolio-level reporting.

How Zevero can help

Reducing embodied carbon starts with knowing what you are working with. That means reliable, material-level carbon data from suppliers that can be traced, verified, and connected to corporate sustainability disclosures. Zevero helps companies produce the verified Environmental Product Declarations that feed building-level whole-life carbon calculations. 

For companies integrating embodied carbon data into their corporate carbon footprint and Scope 3 reporting, Zevero helps build the data foundation that connects project-level action to portfolio-level disclosure. Speak to our team to find out how Zevero can help build that data foundation.