This whitepaper focuses on the tradeoff between operational savings and embodied carbon, which are resulting from retrofit activities. The research presented in this report marks the starting point to shed a light on the relevance of embodied-carbon emissions resulting from energetic retrofits.

Whole life carbon assessment 2nd edition will enable professionals to make prudent decisions to limit the whole life carbon impact of buildings and infrastructure. It facilitates carbon measurement from the production of construction materials to the design, construction and eventual end of life of built assets.

This book intends to clarify the concept of Sustainable Buildings and Construction (SBC) in Africa. It is based on primarily African research and building projects implemented in different parts of the region. The publication is meant to be read by real estate developers, building industry professionals, researchers, planners and policy makers, and users of buildings.

Glass is a material inextricably linked with human civilization. It is also the product of an energy intensive industry. About 75% to 85% of the total energy requirements to produce glass occur when the raw materials are heated in a furnace to more than 1500 °C. During this process, large volumes of emissions arise. The container and flat glass industries, which combined account for 80% of total glass production, emit over 60 million tonne of CO2 per year.

EDGE (“Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies”) is a free software, a green building standard, and an international green building certification system, enabling users to design and certify resource-efficient and zero carbon buildings. 

Based on an extensive literature review on passive building designs for tropical climates, seven energy-efficient building design principles for tropical climate areas were deduced.

In 2010 the worldwide building sector was responsible for 24% of the total GHG emissions deriving from fossil fuel combustion, second only to the industrial sector; but, if the embodied energy of construction materials is included, the share is far higher and the building sector becomes the prime CHG emitter. Thus,building design and construction have a significant effect on the chances of meeting the 2 °C target (keeping global temperature increase to 2 °C ). 

Developed in conjunction with JLL and the Forum’s Real Estate CEO community, the Green Building Principles: The Action Plan for Net Zero Carbon provides a clear sequence of steps to deliver net-zero carbon buildings and along with globally applicable guidance on implementation.

The Global LCA Data Access network (GLAD) is the largest directory of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) datasets, from independent LCA database providers, from around the world.

OpenLCA is an open source and free software for Sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment, with the following features: