Carbon emissions are created by the materials used in constructing new homes, and by the construction process itself. This is known as embodied carbon and it can be reduced in several ways including the use of lower carbon materials, reduced material and process waste and smarter site operations such as fewer transport journeys.

There is no requirement in building regulations or other legislation to reduce these embodied carbon emissions. To take a leadership position, however, and to align with best practice in other countries as well as the likely future trend in the industry, we will require projects funded by WMCA progressively to reduce embodied carbon. This will be measured using the whole life carbon assessment as defined by RICS and aligned to the LETI timeline. The new Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is currently being developed and we will ensure the carbon metrics in our strategy are aligned in terms of definitions and measurement protocols.