More broadly, the European Commission is for the first time addressing embodied carbon in its regulations, which have great potential to boost demand for wood building products.
First, the initial part of the European Union’s rulebook for guiding money toward economic activities classified as sustainable took effect 1 January 2022. Source: Timberbiz
This part of the sustainable finance taxonomy addresses activities that can make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. For new buildings larger than 5,000 m2 to meet this condition, the life cycle global warming potential (GWP) of the building resulting from the construction has been calculated for each stage in the life cycle and is disclosed to investors and clients on demand.
Secondly, under the proposed revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) introduced last month, as of 2027 new buildings larger than 2,000 m2 are required to have an LCA conducted over their entire life cycle, with the results publicly disclosed via the building’s energy performance certificate (2030 is when this requirement would take effect for smaller new buildings). The energy performance certificates would also share information on any building-level carbon storage.
Finally, the EPBD proposal calls for national building renovation plans for which the Member States would need to describe their policies for reducing whole lifecycle embodied carbon emissions and the uptake of carbon removals. The European Parliament will now take up this EPBD revision as part of legislative process, during which the proposal will be adjusted.
Even in the United States, embodied carbon has become a factor in national policy. In December, President Biden unveiled an executive order for the U.S. government to achieve net-zero emissions across its operations. By virtue of the huge scale of the U.S. government and its procurement power, this order has great potential to shift the U.S. market toward low-carbon solutions, including for building materials.
This order includes the launch of a Buy Clean initiative for low-carbon materials. Under this action, the US government will be required to purchase low-carbon materials for its building and civil infrastructure projects. A presidential Executive Order can be undone by a future president; however, mass timber has support from both political parties because of its benefits toward both climate change mitigation and jobs in rural areas. For example, the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was signed into law in November 2021 includes up to USD 12M for each of five years to expand the use of wood products.
More action needed, but the trend is clear.
The regulations mentioned in this text could be more ambitious. And given the urgency of the climate crisis, they should be more ambitious – and many more countries need strong regulations governing embodied carbon.
Still, these regulations symbolize an undeniable trend toward mainstreaming the regulation of embodied carbon in buildings, which bodes well for increased building with wood. Denmark and Finland are among the countries with embodied carbon regulations that will take effect in the next few years.
