On April 27th, the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy launched a web-based system that allows to calculate the embodied energy and carbon of construction products, based on local verified data. The system is called Sidac (Sistema de Informação do Desempenho Ambiental da Construção, translated Construction Environmental Performance Information System) and was developed under the coordination of the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Development (CBCS) within the SPIPA (Strategic Partnerships for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement) programme.
The system allows manufacturers to insert their process inventories, calculate their cradle-to-gate life cycle indicators, and submit their data to a third-party review, everything online. Once approved, the product’s indicators are published in the database and can be used as input data for other products. The indicators are also freely available for consultation, and interested parties can automatically issue digital environmental product declarations in PDF.
By making environmental performance assessment more accessible to construction stakeholders, Sidac represents an important step towards reducing the embodied carbon of the Brazilian construction. Therefore, I believe it is a topic worth communicating to this community.
The system can be accessed at https://sidac.org.br
As a member of the team that developed Sidac, I look forward to your comments and remain available for any questions!