In this tutorial we are going to look at the embodied carbon sheet in the Zebra model.

Embodied carbon includes the carbon associated with producing materials, constructing those materials into a building, maintaining the building, and then finally demolishing the building at the end of its life. However at this point in time Zebra only considers the upfront embodied carbon: The carbon associated with producing materials, transporting the materials, and constructing those materials into our building.

On the right side of the embodied carbon sheet we can specify our building type; whether it's a house, apartment, office. We can also specify whether it's standard construction or low-impact in terms of embodied carbon. Once you've filled out these two values the software will give an estimate of the upfront embodied carbon.

Now setting whether something is standard or low-impact is not straightforward and so we've provided below this input a list of questions that you can fill out that will give you an indication of whether you might have a low impact building or a typical one. If we answer 'yes' to any of these questions (for all of these questions yes it's a positive answer in terms of reducing carbon impact) we are required to provide some commentary on why we've answered 'yes'. When you've completed this questionnaire the spreadsheet will give a recommendation on whether you could do more to reduce your upfront carbon.

Now if we increase the complexity level on the sheet we will find there's additional detail. We have options to specify the external wall type and the construction frame of the building, and this will refine the estimate of the embodied carbon for this building.