The embodied carbon of buildings accounts for 11% of Canada’s emissions. Ongoing efforts to reduce emissions from steel and concrete need to be supplemented with reductions from other material classes if Canada aims to meet its carbon reduction pledges. Gypsum is ubiquitous in the built environment with widespread use in walls and ceilings. The following whitepaper, completed for CertainTeed Canada, outlines the current gypsum landscape in North America, the primary manufacturers, and typical wall assemblies in the Greater Toronto Area.
Drawing upon the findings from the “New Design Resources for Embodied Carbon Targets” report, written by the RDH Building Science + Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and sponsored by The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), the whitepaper identifies gypsum use hotspots in the construction sector. It highlights the reduction potential of CertainTeed Canada’s CarbonLow gypsum board from its Montreal plant, the first low-carbon gypsum board to be manufactured in North America.
We found that gypsum is used in all typical wall assemblies in the Greater Toronto Area and accounts for 1.7% – 5.8% of their embodied carbon. Furthermore, when considering building retrofits that keep the existing facade, this figure grows to 30%.
Read more in the report to learn how sourcing low-carbon gypsum is a simple way to make meaningful embodied carbon cuts.