Products, materials and embodied impacts

What is embodied energy of building materials?

Embodied energy is the energy already spent to extract, process, transport and construct a material before the lights are switched on. PRO 2 is the historical EDG briefing. The contemporary cousin is embodied carbon, now appearing in some NABERS and Green Star pathways and in EPDs published for Australian products.

The PRO series kept returning to timber (resource, durability, certification, demolition), concrete (including low-CO₂ discussions), steel, glazing systems, architectural coatings, and chemical risks in the built environment. Those topics are still the spine of a responsible specification meeting.

Do not use this hub as a life-cycle assessment. Use it to write better questions for a supplier, then ask for an EPD, a chain-of-custody certificate, or a maintenance cycle you can cost.

Australian forests, furnaces and windows

Timber notes in the Guide distinguish native forest, plantation, durability classes and certified supply. That distinction still matters in Australian residential construction, where timber framing is common and demolition waste is real (PRO 36). Concrete and steel notes remind teams that operational energy is not the whole story for a long-span commercial frame.

Glazing notes (PRO 19, PRO 32) belong next to Section J façade papers. A pretty low-e coating is not a design if the west glass is unshaded in a Brisbane summer.

Specification as an ethical conversation

Australian specification still runs through NATSPEC, office masters, and a rush at 90 percent documentation. PRO notes exist to put a pause in that rush. Ask where the timber grew and who certified it. Ask what the concrete’s cement replacement actually is on this pour, not in a brochure. Ask how the coating will be maintained on a twelve-storey west wall in Townsville. Ask whether the window’s rated performance includes the frame you are about to buy.

Embodied impacts are now easier to quantify than when PRO 2 was filed, and easier to greenwash. An EPD is a document with a scope. A recycled-content claim without a mass percentage is a colour. This hub will not do the LCA for you. It will keep you from writing a materials chapter that could have been written by the supplier.

Pair PRO notes with design-for-disassembly (DES 31) and with the PVC papers if the brief mentions services. Pair glazing notes with Section J papers. Pair timber notes with CAS 17 and with current state forestry and bushfire documents — durability class and BAL are not the same sentence.