Understanding Embodied Energy in Building Materials
Launch library · evergreen read
Embodied energy refers to the total energy consumed in extracting, manufacturing, transporting and installing a building material, a figure quite separate from the energy that same material might later help save or use once it is installed and in service within a finished building over its entire working lifetime.
Materials vary enormously in embodied energy: locally sourced timber generally carries a relatively low figure, while materials like aluminium and cement, which both require energy intensive processing at very high temperatures, typically carry considerably higher embodied energy per unit used in construction of a typical building project of any real size.
Considering embodied energy alongside a material's ongoing performance gives a much fuller picture of a whole building's total environmental footprint, since a highly efficient material with very high embodied energy may take a long time to fully offset that initial cost through the energy it subsequently helps save each year.