Embodied carbon - what's that?!

Winner of the Alteration & Additions category in the inaugural Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge: Pettit & Sevitt Revival

Our latest Renew article was written by Alasdair (Ally) Taylor. Ally joined the team in 2022 specifically to become our in-house embodied carbon and life cycle analysis expert. We already knew our houses performed really well in terms of operational carbon (energy used to run them) and embodied carbon (energy used to make all of the materials in them). We’d won multiple awards in the Canberra Low Carbon Housing Challenge across 2021 and 2022 but, in many ways, that experience actually left us with more questions than answers (particularly as the ideas of zero-carbon and carbon negativity joined league with a notion we already had serious concerns about, carbon offsetting).

We wanted to work out how we could do even better — cost-effectively — in the the mainstream market.

There are plenty of new materials around that make big (questionable) claims in relation to embodied carbon and they aren’t necessarily easily accessible in terms of price. There are also plenty of very BIG houses around that use new, alternative low carbon materials in combination with big PV systems, and then claim to be super sustainable using the idea that we can magically offset the carbon that goes into creating and running new buildings. In construction, the only thing that has no carbon impact is, well… doing nothing.

We have a problem with the ‘fancy materials + complex construction methods + big PV system approach’ when it is increasingly pitched as the answer to our housing and environmental issues. If you’re serious about affordability and sustainability the number one thing you can do is use less material — full stop. “Reduce, reuse, recycle” may ring a bell for people. The same applies to houses. Renovate and repurpose where you can and IF building new is necessary then make space efficiency a priority.

Otherwise, we’re not sure if you are serious about sustainability. We hope you will stop to think about how size really does matter when it comes to buildings and embodied carbon.

Renovate, retrofit, reuse, recycle, replace, repair, recreate and minimise.

Smaller, and circular, really is smarter.

Read the great introductory article and get three more hot, low-carbon tips, HERE.