MODEL POLICY Practitioners’ Guide to Whole Life Carbon Assessments

The guide outlines the requirements for conducting Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCA) for buildings, emphasizing the use of the EN 15978 standard to measure both operational and embodied carbon. It details the necessary submission stages—pre-application, planning application, and post-construction—and provides a hierarchy of acceptable carbon data sources, primarily verified Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). The document also defines the physical scope of assessments, covering the building shell, core, and external works, and recommends the use of benchmarks to track reduction progress.

• Whole life carbon emissions encompass the total carbon resulting from a building's entire lifespan, including raw material extraction, manufacture, transport, construction, maintenance, repair, replacement, and eventual demolition and disposal. This includes both operational carbon from energy use and embodied carbon emissions.
• The guide recommends using the BS EN 15978:2011 standard for WLCAs, which establishes the principles and calculation methods for environmental impacts of built projects. It specifically supports the World Green Building Council (WGBC) recommendation for minimum reporting on modules A1-5, B1, B4, B5, B6, C1-4, and D.
• WLCAs should be submitted at three distinct project stages: the pre-application stage to identify early cost-effective savings, the planning application submission to show detailed potential savings, and the post-construction stage, using 12 months of operational data to verify actual savings.
• The physical scope of a WLCA must include the building's shell (substructure and superstructure), core (fittings, furnishings, and services), and external works (utilities and landscaping), while excluding building appliances installed by occupiers.
• There is a defined order of preference for carbon data sources for materials and products, prioritizing verified Type III Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) according to BS EN 15804 or ISO 21930. If manufacturer-specific data is unavailable, sector-level data should be used.
• Developments are expected to establish a whole life carbon baseline and compare it against relevant benchmarks. If emissions fall outside these benchmark ranges, applicants are required to provide an explanation.

APA

World Economic Forum (2024). MODEL POLICY Practitioners’ Guide to Whole Life Carbon Assessments. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Practitioners_Guidance_on_Whole_Life_Carbon_Assessments_2024.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. MODEL POLICY Practitioners’ Guide to Whole Life Carbon Assessments. 2024. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Practitioners_Guidance_on_Whole_Life_Carbon_Assessments_2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=MODEL POLICY Practitioners’ Guide to Whole Life Carbon Assessments |date=2024 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Practitioners_Guidance_on_Whole_Life_Carbon_Assessments_2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2024model, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{MODEL POLICY Practitioners’ Guide to Whole Life Carbon Assessments}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Practitioners_Guidance_on_Whole_Life_Carbon_Assessments_2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }