Coordinating Urban Built-in Carbon (CUBiC)

The built environment is central to the global carbon cycle: it emits substantial greenhouse gases and stores large material stocks. Because mitigation results are delayed and the window for reducing atmospheric carbon is narrowing, strategies for carbon storage and removal in buildings are increasingly important. Research indicates that multiple approaches at varying maturity levels can expand the sector’s capacity to remove and store carbon. Greater attention is needed to understand how the built environment can contribute to storage and removal alongside emission reductions. 

The CUBiC research project is part of Aalto University’s Profi 8 funding from the Research Council of Finland. The work spans three themes: accumulating carbon in residential buildings, extending storage through adaptive reuse, and tracking neighbourhood-level carbon flows. 

This research develops methods to assess urban carbon dynamics, enabling well‑informed interventions and ambitious decisions, supporting progress toward climate goals in Finland and beyond.