Unraveling building sector carbon mechanisms: Critique and solutions

The imminent threat of climate change necessitates a reduction in emissions from sectors like the building industry. In response, various standards, regulations, and rating systems have emerged, collectively aimed at reducing embodied carbon (EC) in buildings. Despite their added value, the field now faces challenges due to inconsistencies in assessment methods and incentive protocols, leading to a lack of comparability and subsequent confusion within the domain. This critical review synthesizes and evaluates benchmarking methods, assessment policies, and incentives across thirty noteworthy EC-based mechanisms. The study provides novel insights into the importance of evaluating EC assessment policies and incentives using historical and empirical data. It calls for the integration and standardization of EC mechanisms and the development of uniform EC normalization methods. The research highlights the need to include fit-outs in EC assessments and establishes clear life cycle assessment phase boundaries to ensure consistency and transparency. By defining taxonomies, the work facilitates a deeper exploration of the EC mechanisms domain, identifying key dimensions and proposing a focused research agenda and action plan. This study enriches the existing body of knowledge by elucidating the current state of EC mechanisms and offering practical recommendations to address their challenges. As a thorough reference, it provides practitioners and policymakers with a detailed, consolidated critique, comparison, and analysis of critical intervention areas. The research underscores the need to address the marked compartmentalization among various mechanisms, which currently suffer from a lack of cross-fertilization and integration, hindering progress towards achieving net-zero emissions in the building sector.