Material efficiency as a key opportunity to reduce embodied carbon in structural systems: Data insights from 226 fully designed projects

Data on embodied carbon in our sector offer unique opportunities to answer key questions about (1) the relative contributions of structural components to emissions, (2) the relationship between material system choice and resulting quantities, and (3) the relationship between material quantities and embodied carbon. Although such analyses have been performed for synthetic data, these types of findings are novel for large quantities of late-stage design data on structural systems.

In this data set of 226 fully designed structural systems of buildings, we found the following:

Foundations make up at least a quarter of a structural system’s emissions
Floors contribute to half of superstructure emissions—the highest average contribution of all superstructure components
There is a large variability of relative contributions of floors and foundations to emissions, suggesting that floors and foundations are particular opportunities for embodied carbon reduction (within structural design conventions represented by the firm’s data set)
Under the assumed material carbon coefficients, using less structural material could be more likely to reduce emissions than choosing between concrete and steel construction types

Fang, Demi, Patrick Kenny, and Caitlin Mueller. 2026. “Material Efficiency as a Key Opportunity to Reduce Embodied Carbon in Structural Systems: Data Insights from 226 Fully Designed Projects.” Journal of Structural Engineering 152 (2): 04025275. https://doi.org/10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-14451.