upfront carbon definition

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a building is done following ISO standards. The principles and framework of life cycle assessments are described in ISO 14040; the requirements are set out in ISO 14044. Using LCA methods, the environmental effect of human activities - such as related to the built environment - has become measurable.  Numerous environmental indicators are defined, the GWP (Global Warming Potential, kgCO2eq) is only one of them. It is widely known due to its direct connection to climate change.

The LCA covers the whole life cycle of a certain building. It consists of the operational and the embedded carbon too. The operational carbon is better known due to its close connection to the economic interest. Everybody wants to save on his/her energy bill and if it is good for the environment that is considered a good pairing. The embedded carbon is not so attractive for people, as it is not connected to economic benefits. Building less harmful to the environment is often more expensive.

Due to the continuous improvements of operational carbon reduction, the share of the embedded carbon is increasing in the whole carbon of the buildings. Therefore it is getting more and more important to target embedded carbon reduction too. Many national regulations ask for whole LCA analysis of buildings in permit phases, which includes embedded carbon.

The embedded carbon consist of the A-D phases of building life, according to the diagram above. Upfront Carbon has a limited scope, from mining and processing of natural resources, transport to processing sites, and the manufacturing phases, (A1-A2-A3-A4-A5). The reason behind this limited interest is the fact, that the most carbon extensive stages can be found here.