10% of emissions from energy come from building materials and construction. We need to rethink how we construct our buildings. From resource-efficient designs with a longer lifetime, circular economy approaches and “urban mining” to increasing the market share of alternative building materials and decarbonising conventional materials like cement and steel, the solutions are there.

This PEEB Working Paper summarizes the key facts on embodied carbon, and presents practical strategies during planning, design and construction, as well as for building materials.  To promote action on embodied carbon, it lays out how policy and financing can address this.