A practical study with Arup that puts a number on the carbon embedded in Hong Kong’s buildings, component by component.
Every building carries a carbon cost that is set in place during construction and rarely fully accounted for. With the built environment behind close to 40% of global emissions, and Hong Kong’s buildings driving most of the city’s carbon and electricity use, understanding that embedded carbon is essential to any credible route to net zero.
Arup and Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) have come together to address that need. Looking beyond structure alone, this whitepaper applies Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) to real projects, extending the analysis across every major building component, from substructure and superstructure to envelope, space planning, MEP systems and external works, and establishing a robust and scalable approach for measuring carbon impacts across building components and project stages.
The study finds that Hong Kong projects typically sit around 30 to 40 % above international benchmarks, reflecting the city’s high-rise typologies and carbon-intensive structural materials. With structure making up more than half of that footprint, it is the clearest priority for reduction, and where scheme optioneering, structural optimisation and low-carbon materials can achieve meaningful savings at modest cost. The whitepaper also sets out digital tools and AI as a strategic priority for improving data processing, transparency and workflow efficiency in WLCA.
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