I want to second Brian’s suggestion of natural stone as the low embodied carbon preference (I work in the natural stone industry so am grinding my own axe.) Attached are two studies that compare whole systems using natural stone vs brick, aluminum, steel and glass cladding systems - both are a bit dated (2010) but are done with rigor and an LCA approach:
- LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF EXTERIOR CLADDING PRODUCTS - LCA Final Report- CladdingProducts - Jan 2010 Geibig UTenn.pdf (398.2 KB)
- Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Natural Stone and Glass Facades DNV-LCA -Natural_Stone vs Glass facades 2010.pdf (1.8 MB)
Sorry to be a bit late here but hope these are useful - more work needs to be done on natural stone products.