Institute for Architectural Science and Technology (IAST)

Course Description

The façade is often the single largest contributor to a building’s embodied carbon. This course provides architects and building design professionals with practical knowledge of carbon footprint assessment for façade systems, covering the full life-cycle: raw material extraction, manufacturing, construction, use and maintenance, and end-of-life – and explaining how to quantify each stage using Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and recognised carbon databases. You’ll learn to compare the embodied carbon of common façade systems: aluminium curtain walling versus steel-framed rainscreen, brick masonry versus brick slip, and timber cladding versus composite panels. The course addresses the significant impact of material choice, transport distance, replacement cycles, and end-of-life scenarios on whole-life carbon outcomes – and demonstrates why production-stage data alone is insufficient for informed decision-making. Presented by Eugene Korch (façade engineer and IAST Programme Director), the course uses real project carbon assessments to demonstrate how façade specification decisions contribute to whole-building carbon targets and environmental certification benchmarks. Through EPD data, carbon calculation worksheets, and system comparison tables, this course equips you to evaluate the carbon implications of façade options, communicate findings to clients and sustainability consultants, and make specification decisions that genuinely reduce environmental impact.