ASHRAE, International Code Council to Jointly Develop New Carbon Emission Standard for Buildings

The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the International Code Council will jointly develop a standard to assess carbon emissions across the entire building life cycle.

The proposed standard, ASHRAE/ICC Standard 240P – Evaluating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Carbon Emissions in Building Design, Construction and Operation, will provide a whole-life carbon approach to support the reduction of emissions in buildings.

“There is a growing demand around the world for consistent building decarbonization guidance that acknowledges the impact of carbon emissions transpired at the beginning of the construction phase to demolition and accounts for the changes in building operation and performance over time,” says ASHRAE president Farooq Mehboob. “This proposed standard will offer a comprehensive structure for evaluating energy use and supporting greenhouse gas emission reductions, as well as serve as a keystone towards harmonizing guidance within the global marketplace.”

The proposed standard will establish how to best measure and verify the greenhouse gas (GHG) and carbon emissions of a building. The goal is to have consistent data and procedures that can be referenced by policies, codes and other standards that address new and existing building performance.

The proposed standard will cover:

• All buildings including existing and new, residential and commercial, and groups of buildings, or portions of buildings.
• Determination, including the calculation methodology and expression of building zero net GHG and zero net carbon status in building operations.
• Calculation of GHG and carbon emissions associated with on-site and off-site material, energy and carbon flows.
• Embodied GHG and carbon emissions of building materials and systems.

“Buildings and the building construction sector are responsible for about 40 percent of total CO2 emissions globally,” says Code Council CEO Dominic Sims. “As energy codes continue to deliver increased reductions in building operational energy use, a holistic approach that addresses the entire building life cycle is essential. The Code Council is dedicated to supporting communities worldwide in meeting their energy and decarbonization goals.”