Our second recent report is for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, the most densely populated region in Canada. For this study, we examined plans for 503 as-built homes in the region.
We found that the average A1-A3 emissions for homes in the study was 42.9 tonnes CO2e, and the average material carbon intensity was 191 kg CO2e/m2 of heated floor area. Extrapolated to the number of homes built annually in the region, we estimate 840,000 tonnes of emissions from new homebuilding materials.
There are lots more interesting insights, including a look at making material substitutions on some of the home plans where we found that available and affordable materials could reduce emissions by up to 75%, and that if we applied a suite of feasible carbon-storing materials the homes could become net storers of carbon.
You can find the report on the Builders for Climate Action website: https://www.buildersforclimateaction.org/
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