Embodied Carbon Carbon Justice in the Built Environment

The global implications surrounding embodied carbon — the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, transportation, assembly, and deconstruction of building materials — are often overlooked. Embodied Carbon challenges the conventional focus on operational carbon, focusing on the inequalities between the Global North and South. Part I traces the historical evolution of embodied carbon, clarifying its definitions, components, measurement and counting methods, and the critical connection between embodied carbon and climate change. Part II delves into the complexities and hidden biases that distort our understanding and approaches to sustainability, particularly the global North bias and the overreliance on high-tech solutions. It highlights how these biases perpetuate environmental disparities and marginalise low-tech, accessible solutions that could benefit broader segments of society. In Part III, we shift to current global efforts and potential pathways forward. Hu offers a comprehensive analysis of existing regulations and policies related to embodied carbon and proposes a low-tech, low-process approach that draws from traditional and indigenous knowledge. The final chapter synthesizes multidisciplinary expert perspectives, offering a new framework for creating equitable and effective solutions to reduce embodied carbon emissions.

1 - Historical evolution of embodied carbon
2 - Define embodied carbon
3 - Embodied carbon, environmental burden, and climate change
4 - Embodied carbon: An environmental justice perspective
5 - Global North bias in sustainability
6 - High-tech bias: Implications for sustainability
7 - Embodied carbon policies and programmes
8 - Low-tech and low-process approaches to low-embodied carbon buildings: Learning from traditional, vernacular, and indigenous knowledge
9 - Equity, embodied carbon proposals, and road to justice

Ming Hu is Professor of Architecture at the School of Architecture and the College of Engineering, University of Notre Dame, USA. She is the Associate Dean for Research at the School of Architecture. Her expertise as a Building Scientist and Environmental Engineering Researcher encompasses extensive practical and theoretical experience in decarbonizing the built environment, aiming to mitigate its environmental footprint and human health impacts. Specifically, she investigates the life cycle environmental impacts associated with building technologies and policies, as well as how community and societal priorities can be better incorporated into decision-making processes.