Summary:
SourcingHaus supported a Multilateral Development Bank in designing and piloting a practical, data-driven emissions tracking framework for infrastructure projects. Focused on embodied carbon in materials and on-site energy use, the pilot set the foundation for future digital solutions and GHG reporting requirements across the Banks construction portfolio.
The Challenge:
The Bank is a large financer of infrastructure in Asia and the Pacific; however, construction activities represent a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, construction activities alone accounted for 37% of global CO₂ emissions, with 11% directly linked to emissions from construction materials such as cement, steel, and asphalt. The Bank needed a verifiable and scalable mechanism to measure project-level emissions associated with its loan-financed infrastructure projects.
What We Did:
SourcingHaus supported the Bank in operationalizing its Sustainable Construction Impact Estimation, Evaluation, Monitoring, and Reporting (IEMR) Framework - an initiative aligned with the Banks Strategy 2030 commitments to low-carbon development and climate-resilient infrastructure. Recognizing the climate impact of its construction loan portfolio, the Bank launched a pilot program to develop a verifiable and scalable framework for emissions tracking in infrastructure projects.
The approach focused on two core areas:
- Embodied emissions from high-carbon construction materials using Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) or default emissions factors.
- Operational emissions from construction site activities, including fuel, electricity, and material transportation — forming part of a Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology
Specifically, we:
- Developed a data collection and calculation methodology based on ISO Standards and the GHG Protocol, covering:
- Product Stage (A1–A3): Raw material sourcing, transport to manufacturing, and manufacturing processes
- Construction Stage (A4–A5): Transport to site and on-site installation
- Designed Data Collection Reporting Templates to capture emissions-related inputs from contractors
- Identified digital solutions to support future automation of emissions reporting
- Piloted the methodology on infrastructure projects across the region.
- Developed a roadmap for transitioning to a centralized, digital reporting platform and proposing pathways for institutionalizing emissions tracking across project lifecycles.
The Impact:
- Delivered a standardized methodology for tracking construction-related greenhouse gas emissions in multilateral infrastructure financing.
- Enabled consistent, verifiable collection of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions data from contractors across diverse project contexts — including fuel use, electricity, material transport, and embodied carbon from construction materials.
- Aligned the methodology with international frameworks, including ISO and the GHG Protocol, ensuring compatibility with global best practices and facilitating future climate reporting.
- Overall, contributed to global efforts to decarbonize the built environment — a sector that accounts for 37% of global CO₂ emissions, including 4.1 GtCO₂e from construction materials alone — by demonstrating how practical data tools can drive institutional change.
