Life Cycle Boundary

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Carbon Inventory
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Embodied carbon (EC) contributes a significant portion of the life cycle carbon footprint of the built environment. According to WWF, the construction sector is the second largest contributor of the carbon footprint in Hong Kong and 85% of the carbon footprint associated with the construction sector is embodied in imported goods and services. This study investigates the embodied carbon of locally used construction materials and develops the Embodied Carbon Of Construction Materials (ECO-CM) database for Hong Kong.

The figure on the left side shows the whole life cycle of a building product. During the life cycle of a construction activity, the carbon footprint embodied in each construction material varies largely under different conditions. A “Cradle-to-Site” life cycle boundary is used in this study. Cradle-to-Site consideration refers to the carbon footprint emitted over Cradle-to-Gate plus the transportation from the factory gate to construction site. In other words, the life cycle boundary in this study includes the processes of raw materials extraction, manufacturing and transport until the construction material has reached the construction site. For a particular type of construction material, the process chain including the manufacturing process is specified. Different transportation means, fuel types, and distances between origin and destination are also considered in the calculation.