ICE Building Materials LCA

• "Cradle to grave" - embodied CO₂ from entire life cycle of material
• "Cradle to gate" - embodied CO₂ from resource extraction to factory gate
• "Cradle to site" - embodied CO₂ from resource extraction to final point of use (e.g. building site)

How to use this category

Selecting an emissions scenario

To use this category, use drill-downs to specify the material, type and subtype.

Specifying activity data

Next, enter the quantity used using the mass profile item.

Results and calculation

The quantities returned represent embodied energy and CO₂ emissions associated with the quantity specified. The following quantities are returned:

• energy: embodied energy, in Megajoules
• CO2: embodied CO₂

Notes

Data ranges

Several embodied CO₂ factors presented in ICE are specified as a range of values. In such cases, Discover provides the option of choosing minimum or maximum values.

Insulation plastics

Data for polystyrene- and polyethylene-based insulation materials are referenced from the 'plastics' category in ICE.

Derived CO₂ factors

ICE contains many materials for which only embodied energy is specified. Only materials which include either (a) an explicit embodied CO₂ factor, or (b) an embodied energy factor plus the associated energy fuel split (from which embodied CO₂ can be derived) are included within Discover. The latter method was used to derive embodied CO₂ factors for clay/limestone bricks and wood-wool reinforced concrete.