Embodied carbon dataset for residential building structures in Finland

Abstract

This dataset contains estimates of embodied carbon in building structures for a total of 53 residential building cohorts in Finland from the 1940s to the 2010s, which have been reconstructed using present-day GWP coefficients. The building types covered are one dwelling houses and blocks of flats. The dataset was created by combining and extending two existing datasets: (1) a building part specific material inventory dataset for residential buildings in Finland, and (2) the generic Finnish national emissions database CO2data. Materials presented in the former dataset were matched with the most appropriate corresponding material in the latter. The volumes and densities of materials were multiplied by the GWP coefficients of present-day Finnish construction materials to approximate the embodied carbon of materials present in structures of Finnish housing archetypes. The resulting embodied carbon estimates are presented at the scale of a building, a horizontal building level, and at smaller scales of components. The embodied carbon estimates are also presented as intensities that divide by the floor area of building archetypes; this enables comparing structural embodied carbon between archetypes. The data can be used for life cycle analysis (LCA) on the neighbourhood level or higher, or combined with the original material inventory dataset, for a combined material stock and flow analysis (MSFA) and LCA.