Embodied Carbon Calculator

Embodied carbon represents the total emissions required to produce products (such as building materials), engage in production activities (such as transporting those materials to the construction site), incorporate the products into constructed buildings, replace the products, and dispose of the products. The emissions are considered to be "embodied" (embedded) in the product. Industry and societal goals strive to reduce these emissions, so they need to be measured.

The Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator (VECC) calculates the embodied carbon levels of a project by identifying the volume of applicable objects and applying the values embedded in materials that have been associated with those objects. It provides an integrated modeling and carbon assessment workflow, allowing designers to quickly measure the impact of their material and product choices on the carbon footprint of their project. Materials are automatically recognized by the calculator, where they factor into the calculations.

In Vectorworks versions prior to 2026, the VECC was only available from a series of worksheets. The worksheets are still available from the list of preformatted reports in the Create Report dialog box (see Using preformatted reports). More information is available from the VECC User Guide PDF.

Construction lifecycle

The VECC defines the typical lifecycle stages of materials and products as follows.

Lifecycle stage	Description
A1-A3	Product stage (Cradle to Gate)
A4	Transport stage (Gate to Site)
A5	Construction
A1-A5	Cradle to Practical Completion
B4	Replacement
B1-B5	Use
B6	Operational Energy
C1	Deconstruction and Demolition
C3-C4	Waste processing for reuse, recovery, or recycling/disposal
C1-C4	End of Life
Whole Life Carbon Assessment	Includes A1-A5, B1-B5, C1-C4, normalized per m2 GIA

Workflow: The Embodied Carbon Calculator 

Difficulty level: Advanced

The Embodied Carbon Calculator provides a total amount of embodied carbon, as well as values for the products/materials from the project, throughout the construction life cycle and for the entire life cycle. By being aware of these totals, you can reduce the carbon footprint of your construction project.

Establish the project building area by defining the spaces in the building, and adding any extra area if needed. 

Define the VECC settings for the project, such as default transportation scenarios or replacement categories. 

Early in the project, generic materials can be defined, before materials and building elements are specified as products from a particular manufacturer. For example, in early stages of building design, the facade will consist of "brick," and the interior walls "timber stud finished with gypsum plasterboard."

Embodied carbon calculations of early stage models can be done using default Vectorworks materials in styled objects; the materials already contain the necessary data on embodied carbon factors and density.

Add the Embodied Carbon Sheet framework to plug-in objects from their Preferences or Settings dialog boxes, and enter summary carbon values for the object (later in the project, add components to the objects, with specific materials).

Default Vectorworks materials are tagged with an Embodied Carbon tag, and searching for this keyword in Resource Manager finds all materials containing the necessary data on embodied carbon factors and density.

As the project progresses, add data to model objects which do not have materials by attaching the Embodied Carbon Sheet record format and defining manufacturer carbon information. 

Add walls, slabs, roofs, and other tools which already have predefined carbon and density data in the component materials of the object. 

Advanced stages of design become far more detailed. For example, specify the exact brick, timber, and plasterboard products to be sourced and installed. You can replace previously generic materials with specific ones, or update the carbon and density data of the existing material resources with manufacturer values (usually, data from a manufacturer is in the form of an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)).

As you modify the project and refresh the data, you'll see the changes to the VECC values in the Sustainability Dashboard. You can assess whole life cycle carbon from the earliest design stages all the way through to the final stages.

Visualize the results in bar chart form, and display results for different lifecycle stages.

Once you've achieved the desired outcome and the project is complete, export the results in spreadsheet format.

VECC Settings

Before using the VECC, establish the default settings to use for the calculations.

To establish the default VECC settings:

Launch the Sustainability Dashboard and select the Embodied Carbon Calculator. See The Sustainability Dashboard.

Click Settings.

The Settings dialog box opens.

Click to show/hide the parameters.Click to show/hide the parameters.

Concept: The Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator

Difficulty level: Advanced

When you access the VECC from the Sustainability Dashboard (see The Sustainability Dashboard), there are two main views: Overview and Details.

Overview view

The VECC Overview view includes three tabs:

Total Embodied Carbon: Displays the data from the building components in the file. Space objects define the building area; additional area can be added to the project manually. Elements such as building components (walls, roofs, slabs, windows, doors, etc.) and defined materials contribute to the calculation, as well as objects with the Embodied Carbon Sheet record format attached and defined according to manufacturer values.

Analysis: Displays the embodied carbon in graphical form, with amounts for the materials, products, and custom entries defined in the Details view. Shows the Whole Life Cycle (WLC) totals by default; click Display Data to select a different project life cycle stage to display. You can display the analysis as a graph of volume (quantity) vs. embodied carbon, or as total embodied carbon, and you can select whether to include carbon from materials, products, or both.

RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge: Displays the embodied carbon and the operational energy for the project according to various Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 2030 challenge benchmarks. Select the appropriate Reference Building Type from the list.

Details view

The VECC Details view is organized in columns according to the project life cycle. Click on the desired life cycle stage to view its calculations, or click on Whole Life Cycle to view the total calculation for the materials or products.

There are two tabs:

Materials: Lists the materials from the project to be included in the embodied carbon calculations. Click Manage List to open the Manage List dialog box, to select the included materials. 

The Materials tab lists all the materials found in the file; selected materials participate in the calculation per unit for objects which use the material. Select all by clicking or deselect all by clicking . Search for a material by entering text in the search box to filter the list.

The Materials by Style tab lists the materials grouped by plug-in object styles. Search for a style by entering text in the search box to filter the list. If you manage the materials by style, the material information added to the style returns the values, and the calculation occurs per unit for objects which use the style.

Products: Lists the objects from the project to be included in the embodied carbon calculations. These objects have an Embodied Carbon Sheet record attached and they are defined with manufacturer data.

The VECC

To use the VECC:

Create the building gross internal area for the project by adding spaces to the project. If needed, additional area can be specified in the VECC.

Create the appropriate objects that make up the project.

For a preliminary design, use geometry such as extrudes, tapered extrudes, generic solids, etc. and use materials. You can also create symbols and attach the Embodied Carbon Sheet record format. The sustainability record formats are located in the Libraries\Defaults folder in the Record Formats\Sustainability file. See Attaching record formats to a symbol instance or object for information on how to attach records to objects.

For a more advanced design, use tools like the Wall, Slab, Hardscape, Curb, the Create Roof command, and more. Many of these plug-in objects have components that include materials which participate in the VECC calculations.

You can also attach the Embodied Carbon Sheet record format to windows, doors, and other parts of the building.

To open the Embodied Carbon Sheet Editor dialog box, do one of the following:

For objects with the Embodied Carbon Sheet record attached, click Edit Sustainability Data from the Data tab of the Object Info palette.

For certain plug-in objects without materials, click Settings from the Object Info palette, and open the Sustainability pane. Click New Framework. For the Framework, select Embodied Carbon Sheet, and then click Edit Framework.

Use the Eyedropper tool to pick up data from one object  with an attached record and drop it onto other, similar ones. For larger projects, save the sustainability settings of plug-in objects as a style. You can also use the Data Manager to attach the record as a criteria-based object.

For plug-in objects with materials specified in components, no further editing is needed unless you want to edit the material parameters. If you do, skip to step 5.

From the Embodied Carbon Sheet Editor dialog box, specify the parameters related to the embodied carbon.

Click to show/hide the parameters.Click to show/hide the parameters.

For advanced designs where you might need to specify or edit the default embodied carbon parameters for materials used in components, identify the materials to edit from the components list, and then locate them in the Resource Manger. Right-click on the material resource to edit, and select Edit to open the Edit Material dialog box (you can also access the Edit Material dialog box from the Sustainability Dashboard, by clicking on the icon next to the material in Details view). Click on the Physical tab, where you can edit the Embodied Carbon value. If the value is from manufacturer's data, select Manufacturer value. You can also edit the Density if needed. Once you click OK, any object styles that use the material are updated with the new embodied carbon value. The VECC will use the new value when you click Recalculate.

In the Sustainability Dashboard, the building gross internal area and current embodied carbon calculations display. Select participating layers. As you add more spaces and objects to the design, or edit embodied carbon values, click Recalculate; the dashboard indicates the results. See The Sustainability Dashboard.

Once you have achieved a design with required results, click Export to create a report that can be submitted or shared with an expert for review.

The Sustainability Dashboard

Concept: Records, reports, and schedules

Editing materials

Using preformatted reports