Developing a comprehensive account of embodied emissions within the Canadian construction sector
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19468437 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leopold Wambersie (Départment de genie de la construction École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec Montréal Canada), Claudiane Ouellet‐Plamondon (0000-0003-3795-4791, Départment de genie de la construction École de technologie supérieure, Université du Québec Montréal Canada, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1612-1625 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Industrial Ecology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1088-1980 • E-ISSN: 1530-9290 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jiec.13548 |
| OpenAlex | W4402925815 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 35 |
Construction activities are a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. However, the majority of construction‐driven emissions are indirect, meaning that these emissions occur during the manufacturing and transport of construction materials. This is in contrast with direct emissions, which are directly emitted from construction machinery. These indirect impacts are represented as embodied emissions and are difficult to quantify at scale, limiting the effectiveness of climate policymaking in the building sector. This paper presents results from a comprehensive account of embodied emissions within the Canadian construction sector, at a resolution far higher than existing global accounts, as well as novel analyses of flows and intensities of embodied emissions. It has the specific goal of serving as a baseline for future analyses of decarbonization scenarios and the more general goal of highlighting the importance of a consumption‐based approach to climate policymaking in the sector. The accounts are produced via an environmentally extended input–output analysis based on Canadian supply–use tables for the year 2018, and results are presented for the 13 provinces and territories as well as 19 categories of buildings and infrastructure. Results show that demand from construction drives 13% of Canada's consumption‐based emissions, residential construction is by far the largest driver of emissions, and at 0.28 kgCO 2eq per Canadian dollar of GDP, the efficiency of Canadian construction is roughly in line with the OECD average. A disproportionate share of emissions is driven by construction in provinces that are growing fast in terms of their populations, feature significant extractive industries, and feature higher emissions intensities. The construction sectors of western provinces are highly interconnected and receive a disproportionate proportion of embodied emissions from Alberta, whose high level of emissions promises to complicate decarbonization efforts. This article met the requirements for a gold‐gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges
Business · Economics · Embodied cognition · Environmental resource management · Industrial ecology · Natural resource economics · Sustainability · Computer Science · Environmental Impact and Sustainability · Smart Materials for Construction · Sustainable Building Design and Assessment · Ecology
To what extent is sustainability addressed at urban scale and how aligned is it with Earth's productive capacity
Exiobase 3
How do carbon footprints from LCA and Eeioa databases compare? A comparison of ecoinvent and Exiobase
The Carbon Footprint of Norwegian Household Consumption 1999–2012
Embodied Carbon in China’s Export Trade
From production-based to consumption-based national emission inventories
Identifying important characteristics of municipal carbon footprints
Biogenic carbon in buildings
Model-based policymaking or policy-based modelling? How energy models and energy policy interact
Consumption-based versus production-based accounting of CO2 emissions
The case for consumption-based accounting of greenhouse gas emissions to promote local climate action
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |