Design Solution · Sustainability
Design Solution · Dream about it
Quantify embodied carbon and compare to a published target.
Whole-building embodied carbon is calculated (about 389 kgCO2/m2) and tested against the LETI 2020 target of 600 kgCO2/m2 to verify the benefit of retrofit over rebuild. Measuring against a published benchmark turns a claim into evidence. The practice supports carbon-led design decisions on commercial projects.
Calculating whole-building embodied carbon and testing it against a published target — in this case 389 kgCO2/m2 against LETI's 600 kgCO2/m2 threshold — turns a qualitative retrofit preference into a defensible quantitative argument that can survive client scrutiny and planning challenge. The method's value is not the number itself but the discipline of producing it: it forces material-level accounting, surfaces the dominant carbon contributors early enough to influence specification, and provides a basis for comparing options rather than accepting conventional approaches by default. The record appropriately acknowledges that both the calculation and the benchmark carry methodological assumptions — system boundaries, transport factors, end-of-life credits — that must be stated and consistently applied if the comparison is to be meaningful. For specifiers the honest caveat is that LETI targets and similar frameworks evolve, so a calculation benchmarked against 2020 figures may look different against a 2030 revision; the value is in embedding the measurement habit rather than treating a single pass-result as a permanent credential. This is a low-risk, high-legibility practice that should be standard on any project where embodied carbon is a stated objective.
#embodied carbon #LETI #measurement