Embodied carbon and carbon footprinting are topics of growing interest. This report starts with a summary of various activities in the field of embodied carbon and carbon footprinting, including a summary of the standards under development. It then progresses to the main purpose of the report, which is to highlight a key weakness that appears in current embodied carbon versus operational carbon studies for construction. Embodied carbon is a large upfront release that occurs in our present time period. However, operational carbon occurs continually over a long period of time. For the global economy to control climate change large reductions in greenhouse gases are required. The electricity sector is expected to play a vital part, offering significant GHG reductions. Whilst heating systems need an active participation from building owners or occupiers to reduce emissions, those from grid electricity do not. This report examines the effect of greener electricity on the embodied versus operational carbon of a building between now and 2050. The scenario that failed to consider a year on year improvement in electricity over-estimated the total GHG emissions of electricity by as much as 270% between now and 2050. This is clearly significant.
