Embodied Energy in Buildings
What is embodied energy?
CSIRO defines embodied energy as the energy consumed by all of the processes and materials associated with the production of a building, from mining and manufacture to transport and construction. Even the builder’s administration is included. And each new home we build contains another 50 to 100 tonnes or so of embodied CO2. There are about 7.6 million dwellings in Australia, of which three quarters are stand-alone houses. Around 120,000 new dwellings are added each year.
CSIRO says that the average embodied energy of a newly constructed dwelling is around 5 GJ/m2. By 1999 the average floor area had increased to 223 m2, which means the embodied energy had increased to 1118 GJ. On average, 0.098 tonnes of CO2 are produced per gigajoule of embodied energy. (http.www.cmmt.csiro.au/brochures/tech/embodied/index.cfm)
“On average, there’s 0.67kg of embodied emissions in every dollar of a house – so a house that costs $100,000 to construct will have (on average) embodied emissions of 67 tonnes.”
(www.cse.csiro.au/publications/2005/balancingact4.pdf) or (www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au/publications/documents/balancingact4.pdf)
“The embodied energy of a building is a significant multiple of the annual operating energy consumed, ranging from around 10 for typical dwellings to over 30 for office buildings. Making buildings such as dwellings more energy efficient usually requires more embodied energy thus increasing the ratio even further.” (www.cmmt.csiro.au/brochures/tech/embodied/index.cfm)
Australia's annual energy production creates around 350 million tonnes of CO2 which suggests that 3,500,000,000 tonnes of CO2 are locked up in our homes, offices and buildings.
What can we do about it?
Ask your builder for a carbon neutral home. Cost is negligible and can be spread over the life of the mortgage. You can even make your existing home carbon neutral by offsetting its embodied energy. Talk to Canopy and we'll advise you on who to speak to.