The Carbon Recovery Gap in Real Estate’s Net Zero Action

Sustainability leaders in Canada’s commercial real estate industry are achieving some success with reducing operational and embodied carbon. The keys to this are improved energy and material efficiency and electrification. Carbon reduction in electricity grids and construction material supply chains are helping too. But the industry needs to move farther and faster on these issues to achieve its share of the necessary reductions.

In addition, there has been little attention on end-of-life emissions, creating a gap in the industry’s net zero approach. Business-as-usual processes to (re)develop and renovate buildings at end-of-life are generating low-value material streams that the industry calls “construction and demolition waste.” 55% of this ends up in landfill (Delphi Group & Dillon Consulting, 2023).

These “waste” materials can’t be used, and much of the rest has to be used in less valuable forms. To make up the difference, the industry needs new materials. Even as we make incremental progress on reducing embodied carbon, extracting and manufacturing those new materials still adds excessive carbon to the atmosphere.

However, when materials can be reused with minimal reprocessing, emissions are much smaller. This can be realized by considering existing buildings as a source of low-carbon materials for future projects. The “recovered carbon” of these reused materials is doubly advantageous for real estate owners and developers – it supports progress towards a low-carbon future and creates a new value stream from existing assets.

Deconstructing and renovating buildings to salvage materials in a form that can be reused is often feasible today with negligible cost compared to demolition and disposal. And by designing new buildings with deconstruction in mind from the start, there is even greater potential for reuse.

We are working with developers to identify and quantify the recovered carbon in their redevelopments and renovations. Reach out of you’d like to collaborate with us.