Embodied energy and carbon - The ICE database

Embodied energy is the amount of energy consumed to extract, refine, process, transport and fabricate a material. It is often measured from cradle to (factory) gate, or cradle to site (of use). Likewise, embodied carbon footprint is the amount of carbon (CO2 or CO2e emission) to produce a material.

The Inventory of Carbon and Energy (also know as the ICE database) is a free database for building materials. Our founder, Dr Craig Jones, created the ICE database in his former role as a researcher at the University of Bath whilst working for Professor Geoff Hammond.

The ICE database is available as a a hard copy book version available from BSRIA, or as a free download, in excel format by subscribing to the Circular Ecology mailing list (please fill in the form below). You will be emailed the ICE database so please check your email address carefully.

Download your free ICE database - over 17,000 users

Full Name *

Email *

Sector *

How will you use ICE

About the ICE Database - Embodied Energy & Carbon Data

In total the ICE database has been downloaded by over 17,000 professionals from around the world and it appears in countless reports, journals, books, lectures, embodied energy and carbon footprint calculators, and more.

It contains data for over 200 materials, broken down into over 30 main material categories (such as cement, concrete, glass, timber, plastics, steel...etc). The embodied energy data provides the energy consumed to make a building material. This then gives rise to embodied carbon emissions, which contribute to global warming and climate change.

The ICE database was last updated in 2011 but we believe that the data is still robust and reliable. We are investigating how it can be updated in the future, with the aim to keep it free and entirely independent. The ICE database remains a University of Bath resource, see http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/research/sert/, but the download file is now hosted by Circular Ecology.

How was it created?

The ICE database was created from a large review of the literature. The first version was released in 2005 and it has been updated at periodic intervals. The diagram below shows how the database was created.

Online training courses

We regularly run online training courses. We are currently running the following courses:

Online carbon footprint training
Online embodied energy and carbon training
Online Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) training course
Webinar: A single tonne of CO2e - Provenance, perspective, progression. Read more about this webinar.

You may also be interested in signing up to our Newsletter, exploring our Knowledge Base or reading our latest News.

Please connect with us through LinkedIn, Twitter, or by sharing this page using the buttons below.