Making the case for Embodied Carbon in renovations
Carbon Wise performed a Life Cycle Assessment on a Net-Zero home renovation in the District of North Vancouver. The report presents the comparison of operational and embodied emissions savings over time, compared to a business-as-usual scenario.
This project was showcased by BUILDEX, CLF-BC, the Canadian Architect, Passive House Accelerator, and SiteNews.
Key learnings
The embodied emissions invested in upgrading the home through a deep energy retrofit or a full reconstruction can be paid back in 5 years or less by the energy savings of a new high-efficiency home.
Concrete is the highest emitter and when possible, avoiding or reducing its use provides very high embodied emissions savings (in this case ~8 tonnes of CO2e)
40-80% reduction in embodied emissions can be easily achieved with simple material substitutions.
20 years of continued use for this home = the embodied emissions of 4 new net-zero homes.
