Material database used to assess carbon output of material production.
Actionability
Users can access and use the materials database to decide what materials to use to reduce one’s carbon footprint when building, renovating, or completing a property improvement project.
Justification
This link provides clients with a valuable database on materials to make informed decisions regarding material use.
About The ICE Database
The Inventory of Carbon and Energy (also known as the ICE database) is an embodied carbon database for building materials which is available for free on this page. Our founder, Dr. Craig Jones, created the ICE database in his former role as a researcher at the University of Bath whilst working for Professor Geoff Hammond, at the Sustainable Energy Research Team (SERT).
The ICE database originally contained embodied energy and embodied carbon factors. However, since 2019 embodied energy factors are no longer included. The data in the wider literature, which the ICE database relies upon, generally no longer reports the embodied energy of construction products. Instead, embodied carbon has become the main metric. Carbon emissions give a better indicator of the contribution of that energy to global warming and climate change.
In total, the ICE database has been downloaded by over 30,000 professionals from around the world and it appears in countless reports, journals, books, lectures, embodied energy and carbon footprint calculators, and more.
It contains data for over 200 materials, broken down into over 30 main material categories, such as:
- Bricks
- Cement
- Concrete
- Glass
- Timber
- Plastics
- Metals
- Minerals and stone
- Many more…
The energy data provides the energy consumed to make a building material. This then gives rise to embodied carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming and climate change.
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