Reclaimed bricks cut embodied carbon by 6.49 tCO2e per typical house, EPD analysis shows

Reclaimed clay bricks can cut embodied carbon by roughly 6.49 tonnes of CO2 equivalent for a typical house, according to a lifecycle assessment from Tunley Environmental. The study, published as an Environmental Product Declaration for Reclaimed Brick Company, compares the global warming potential of reclaimed bricks with a historic UK brick industry average across stages A1-A3. For a home using 15,000 bricks, the reclaimed bricks show a negative GWP of -0.10 tCO2e versus 6.39 tCO2e for new bricks. The savings come from avoiding raw material extraction, firing, and other manufacturing steps. Reclaimed Brick Company says it salvaged and reused more than 1.6 million bricks in 2024, keeping about 5,800 tonnes of material out of landfill. The analysis gives architects, developers, and homeowners a verified number to use when comparing material choices. This is a useful example of circular economy in construction, though the comparison uses a historic brick average, so the gap against current production may be smaller. Still, the EPD provides a concrete baseline for embodied carbon calculations.