Embodied Carbon Values in Common Insulation Materials

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Like many architects, we have begun to pay much closer attention to the embodied carbon associated with the materials we are specifying. All other things being equal, selecting a material with a lower global warming potential (GWP) is preferable. However, at this early stage, not many of us have a strong intuitive sense of how meaningful various GWP values might be – e.g. is 223 kgCO2e/m2 of insulation good or bad?

We performed a study to compare the embodied carbon values for nine commonly used types of insulation with the goal of presenting the results in a relatable way. The insulation products considered include two brands of XPS, two brands of next-gen XPS, Polyiso, Rockwool, Neopor GPS, fibreglass batts, and blown cellulose.

Click here to view the article on Canadian Architect

Fore more on the report see TreeHugger.com

Contributors:
Geoffrey Turnbull
OAA, LEED AP, CPHD
DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION

Jonathan Graham
SUSTAINABILITY ANALYST

David Constable
OAA, LEED AP, CPHD
PRINCIPAL

Sahana Dharmaraj
LEED Green Associate
INTERN ARCHITECT