Operational Carbon in the Built Environment: Measurements, Benchmarks and Pathways to Net Zero

Abstract

Operational carbon refers to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy consumed during the ‘use stage’ of a building’s lifecycle—a significant contributor of the total emissions in the built environment. This chapter presents the existing benchmarks for operational energy use and their associated carbon emissions in the Australian building sector and positions them in a global context. It highlights the key factors that impact operational carbon benchmarks and presents their variations across different building types and climate zones. It provides an overview of strategies to reduce operational carbon emissions for both new buildings and retrofits for residential and commercial functions as well as the commonly used methods to measure these reductions. The strategies include the integration of energy efficiency and renewable energy generation which is crucial to achieving net zero operational carbon and a key aspect of the approach used for setting future interim targets for operational carbon presented in Chap. 4. However, as operational carbon is continually reduced, the importance of embodied carbon in delivering a net zero carbon-built environment will grow. This is discussed in Chap. 3.