Local Carbon Inventory Database for Construction Materials: Approaches and Potential Impacts

According to World Wild Fund (WWF), the construction sector was reported to be the second largest contributor to Hong Kong carbon footprint and around 85% of its carbon footprint was embodied in imported goods and services from upstream material inputs to Hong Kong. Therefore, it is crucial to study the embodied carbon of construction materials and select the low carbon materials in order to achieve a low carbon built environment. This project aims to develop a local embodied carbon database, namely ECO-CM (Embodied Carbon Of Construction Material), for the commonly used construction materials in Hong Kong. The life cycle assessment approach used in the development of the ECO-CM database is presented and illustrated in this paper. As embodied carbon values are regional specific, primary data were collected from the material suppliers through questionnaires for the carbon footprint calculation. A “Cradle-to-Site” system boundary was used in the ECO-CM database to improve the accuracy and completeness of the results. It is expected that the completed ECO-CM database can provide a basis for selection of green materials, development of carbon labels, and estimation of building facility carbon footprint, thereby helping to construct a low carbon Hong Kong.