Embodied emissions are produced over the life-cycle of materials used in a building: in manufacture, transportation, construction and disposal. In most buildings, the majority of embodied emissions comes from the energy needed to create a building's structure — usually steel or concrete. Embodied emissions vary based on a project's location and the availability of and production methods for building materials.

How are embodied emissions calculated in Delve?

Delve’s embodied carbon model uses Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) values to estimate the tCO2e emitted in producing materials for a buildings structure. These values are combined with building types and gross floor areas in each design to estimate the associated embodied emissions.
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EPD data is from the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator tool (EC3) by BuildingTransparency. Delve compares estimates against baseline values, using references from the Carbon Leadership Forum's (CLF) 2017 Embodied Carbon Benchmark Study.