Embodied Carbon of Materials:
A Guide
Guide design for sustainability consultancy ‘Envision’
The guide serves as an introductory guide for designers, builders, and developers in the construction sector, offering insights into the embodied carbon impacts of building materials and construction processes, to educate and steer the industry toward more sustainable practices and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with global climate change mitigation efforts.
The key infographic
The infographic from the report "Embodied Carbon of Materials: A Guide" is a visual breakdown that categorises the carbon impacts of a building into distinct elements, such as the frame, floors, roof, and external walls. It serves as a detailed component of the guide, which is structured to educate stakeholders about the embodied carbon impact of various building materials.
How the navigation works
The uses a vertical icon bar on the left side to orient the reader within the document. Each icon represents a different section of the report, corresponding to various components of a building's structure and their carbon impact, as outlined in the key infographic.
The current section, is denoted by the highlighted icon with the letter, i.e. ‘B. FLOORS’ with the subheader topic of the page, which is "Floor finishes", accompanied by the hero image relating to that subheader topic. This styling makes it clear to the reader that a new subheader section has been introduced.
The color orange of the highlighted icon and the section heading corresponds to the color scheme of the page, indicating that the content of the page pertains to that section. This color-coding and iconography system helps users easily identify and navigate to different sections of the report. We ensure that at least two encoding methods (color, numbers & letters and icons) are used to make it simpler to navigate.
Each icon is hyperlinked within the PDF so readers can navigate the document quickly from any point in the document.
Life cycle infographic
The infographic is titled "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)" and is designed to illustrate the methodology for quantifying the environmental impacts of a building or development across its entire lifecycle. It features a circular flow diagram with different stages labeled from A1 to D3.
The stages are connected in a loop to indicate the cyclical nature of a building's life, from material sourcing to end-of-life disposal or recycling. The graphic is part of the guide on embodied carbon and aims to provide a comprehensive view of all the stages where carbon emissions can be assessed and potentially reduced. It also includes sub-stages such as Cradle to Gate, Cradle to Construction Site, and Cradle to Building Completion, among others, denoted by A1-A7 and Cradle to Grave (A1-C4).