As the built environment comes under increasing pressure to decarbonise, knowing how much carbon a building produces is becoming just as important as knowing how much it costs to build. A new study by engineering and consulting firm Arup and construction and property consultancy Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) is seeking to make that assessment more practical for Hong Kong’s building industry.
The joint whitepaper, Whole Life Carbon Assessment – Embodied Carbon Quantification in Hong Kong, examines embodied carbon across building components and project stages, providing a more comprehensive picture of where emissions arise and where they can be reduced. Published on 9 Aug 2026, the study draws primarily on residential and commercial projects in Hong Kong, with additional reference cases from the Chinese Mainland.
RLB is an independent global construction, property and management consultancy specialising in areas including cost management and quantity surveying, project and programme management, asset advisory and sustainability. The firm operates across 36 countries with more than 4,600 people, bringing a commercial and cost perspective to the study alongside Arup’s engineering and sustainability expertise.
That combination is important because carbon reduction in construction is increasingly moving from a broad sustainability ambition to a project-level decision. The built environment accounts for around 40% of global carbon emissions, while in Hong Kong, buildings are responsible for more than 60% of carbon emissions and around 90% of electricity consumption. Yet assessing a building’s carbon footprint remains challenging when measurements are inconsistent or limited to selected parts of a project.
The study aims to address this gap by combining RLB’s Bills of Quantities data with carbon assessment methodologies. Rather than focusing on a building’s structure and envelope, the assessment considers a wider range of components, including substructure and superstructure, façades, space planning, mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems, and external works. This provides a fuller view of embodied carbon across a building’s lifecycle.
The findings point to a significant carbon reduction opportunity. For Hong Kong projects assessed across full lifecycle boundaries, total embodied carbon typically falls between 1,100kg and 1,400kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metre — around 30-40% higher than international benchmarks. The study attributes the difference in part to Hong Kong’s high-rise building typologies and reliance on carbon-intensive structural materials.
Structure emerges as the largest source of embodied carbon, accounting for more than half of a building’s footprint. This makes structural design one of the most important levers for reducing emissions, particularly when decisions are made early enough to influence the project. Structural optimisation, scheme optioneering and the use of lower-carbon materials such as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) concrete and recycled steel could deliver meaningful reductions, according to the study.
The research also connects carbon performance with construction cost. By mapping carbon impacts against RLB’s quantity data, the approach gives project teams a way to consider carbon alongside cost when evaluating materials, designs and construction options. For developers and project owners, this can turn carbon assessment from a reporting exercise into a tool for making better investment and design decisions.
Timing is critical. The study highlights the concept and procurement stages as points where opportunities for carbon reduction remain available. By the time a project reaches construction, many decisions affecting its embodied carbon have already been locked in. Bringing Whole Life Carbon Assessment into the design process earlier can therefore help teams identify lower-carbon alternatives before they become more expensive or difficult to implement.
The study also points to the growing role of digital tools and AI in making carbon assessment more efficient. Arup and RLB developed an AI agent to interpret Bills of Quantities and structure the information needed for carbon calculations, demonstrating how automation could help reduce the time required to turn project data into usable carbon insights. At the same time, the authors note that better standardisation of carbon factors and methodologies will be necessary to improve consistency and comparability, especially for MEP systems where data remains fragmented.
For an industry increasingly expected to demonstrate measurable progress towards net zero, the significance of the study lies less in producing another carbon benchmark than in making carbon part of the same conversations that already shape projects: what to build, how to build it and what it will cost.
As Hong Kong works towards its 2050 net-zero target, and the Chinese Mainland towards 2060, more consistent whole-life carbon data could give developers, designers, engineers and quantity surveyors a stronger basis for deciding where emissions can be designed out — before a building is even constructed.