Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction

The construction industry is one of the most resource intensive industries, being responsible for enormous quantities of waste generation, and nearly 40%of global energy-related CO2 emissions. Furthermore, accurately quantifying Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste is challenging, demolition is an environmentally damaging process and there is a level of uncertainty of where waste goes.

The construction of new buildings can represent more than 50% of its total life cycle emissions.
According to the operational and embodied carbon trajectories proposed by LETI [2], when meeting the current building regulations in the UK, embodied carbon in the construction phase of a building’s life typically equates to 30/35% of its total life cycle emissions. However, if we design ultra-low energy buildings where the operational carbon represents less than 20% of the whole life carbon, the embodied carbon
can equate to more than 80%.

Therefore, the focus on embodied carbon is a fundamental step towards meeting Net Zero targets, as defined by the UK government.
Since 80% of buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built, it is imperative that we make the most of the materials already in existence.