Embodied Energy

Now most of you "greenies" already know all of the green speak but this post is for those who don't know it all. So I am going to talk about embodied energy. According to Wikipedia "Embodied energy is an accounting methodology which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle. This lifecycle includes raw material extraction, transport,[2] manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition." There is also a a great article written by Tracy Mumma regarding embodied energy which explains it well. But as we go along doing this green remodel this concept will come up with every product we choose and is a huge factor if not THE factor in why we choose a certain material. I used to think it just meant "buy local" because of the energy involved in transporting it from one location to another and that does play a role but as you can tell there are other factors comprising embodied energy.