Push for Embodied Carbon Measurement as Scope 3 Deadline Looms

“You can’t reduce what you don’t understand. Measurement is always the first step.”

That was the message from Slattery director of carbon planning Tom Dean as Australia edges closer to mandatory Scope 3 emissions reporting in 2026.

The property and construction sector is confronting a challenge that has long sat in the too-hard basket: accurately measuring embodied carbon. 

National property advisory group Slattery believes it has part of the answer.

Slattery has released Australia’s first spend-based emissions factor—a simple metric that allows businesses to translate construction expenditure into a carbon figure. 

At 0.21kg of CO₂-e per dollar spent, the factor gives finance teams—often far removed from the technicalities of construction—a baseline estimate of embodied emissions tied to new builds, refurbishments and fitouts.

Dean told The Urban Developer the tool was the culmination of four years of work building an in-house carbon measurement team and database that now spans hundreds of projects.

“We saw the challenge coming for our clients years ago,” Dean said. 

“While Europe has sophisticated carbon markets, Australia didn’t have the tools to measure embodied carbon properly. We realised we could fill that gap.”

Slattery’s spend-based factor draws on its extensive live project database. 

The aim, Dean said, was to give businesses—particularly those whose core operations aren’t in construction—a consistent and conservative starting point for reporting.

“Most businesses will have significant emissions from property and construction, even if that’s not their core business,” he said.

“They need a reputable, evidence-backed number to take to market.”

To support this, Slattery is now developing an online calculator, allowing users to estimate emissions by inputting project spend and adjusting for variables such as asset class, or whether a project is a new build or fitout. 

Dean said fitouts typically carried half the emissions of new construction.

Institutional investors and asset managers such as Dexus and ISPT are already working on Scope 3 strategies to quantify and reduce embodied carbon across their portfolios.

▲ The retention of existing buildings will become more important as embodied carbon takes a bigger role in sustainability conversations.

Dean said the need for education about reducing carbon emissions remained.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that measuring or reducing carbon adds cost to a project,” he said. “That’s simply not the case.”

Another common misconception is that reductions rely on expensive low-carbon products, such as “green concrete”. 

Dean said meaningful reductions often came from good design, not costly materials.

“The real savings come from planning early—reducing basement carparks, optimising lift and stair cores, or even adjusting column grids. A 1m change can significantly reduce concrete volumes, which saves both carbon and cost.”

While industry practice is uneven, regulatory momentum is accelerating. 

New South Wales introduced a 2023 planning requirement mandating disclosure of material quantities at the DA stage—an early-step measure that had “completely shifted” conversations in that state, Dean said.

Other jurisdictions are expected to follow suit, alongside growing pressure from banks, financiers and institutional investors who increasingly require emissions data as part of lending and investment decisions. 

Dean said embodied carbon measurement was also reshaping thinking around adaptive reuse. Slattery was conducting multiple studies to help owners weigh the carbon value of retaining existing structures.

“As carbon becomes more valued, existing buildings will be viewed differently,” he said. “We’re already seeing it across all asset classes.”