Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman/ChavoBart Digital Media

Thanks to Yale Climate Connections for expanding our vocabulary:

What is ‘embodied carbon’?

It’s a little-known but major factor in the carbon footprint of our buildings.

Buildings can create a lot of global warming carbon pollution, from the electricity for lights and appliances to the oil or gas used to power the furnace.

But a huge part of a building’s carbon footprint is generated before the building is even constructed.

This is what’s called “embodied carbon.”

Sullens: “Embodied carbon is really all those upfront emissions that happen during the harvesting, extraction, transportation, and then installation of materials that go into buildings.”

Wes Sullens is with the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council.

Some of these materials create a surprising amount of carbon pollution.

Cement alone is responsible for about 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Iron and steel production emit roughly the same.

Read the whole article here.