If we are to become carbon neutral, we need consider not only the energy performance of a home or structure, but also the embodied energy of the materials that go into construction of the dwelling—the cumulative embodied energy. The average home has 300 mWh hours of embodied energy, roughly 25 percent of the total energy used over the lifetime of the building. While the operational usage outstrips the embodied energy in the long term, if we are to truly talk about net-zero energy, embodied energy needs to fit into the equation.
