News
Building Cambodia’s Capacity to Measure and Reduce Whole-Life Carbon Emissions
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 03-04 July 2026 – The Asia Low Carbon Buildings Transition (ALCBT) Project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC), conducted a two-day programme of technical training and knowledge exchange to strengthen Cambodia’s ability to measure, track, and reduce carbon emissions from the building and construction sector.
The programme began with a full-day training on the Building Emission Assessment Tool (BEAT) on 3 August, followed by an introductory training on building scenario analysis using the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Tool on 4 August. It concluded with a knowledge exchange on Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between HEAT International and CamTech University on institutional collaboration for the adoption and use of BEAT in Cambodia.
Together, the activities connected four critical areas of building-sector decarbonisation: building-level carbon assessment, sector-level monitoring and policy analysis, construction-material carbon data, and long-term capacity development through academia.
Opening the BEAT training, H.E. Ros Salin, Secretary of State of MLMUPC and Chairperson of the ALCBT Cambodia Project Steering Committee, highlighted the importance of addressing low-carbon buildings from several interconnected perspectives, including buildings and construction materials, governance and regulatory frameworks, and access to finance.
He noted that reducing building-sector emissions requires coordination across different stages of the building lifecycle, from planning, architectural design, and construction requirements to the assessment and management of carbon performance. He also highlighted the need to further strengthen regulations and certification systems for green buildings in Cambodia.
H.E. Ros Salin also stressed that green and low-carbon buildings require appropriate financing mechanisms. Strong environmental performance and green architectural design can improve the attractiveness of building projects to financiers, while innovative financing mechanisms can help building owners and developers implement low-carbon and green building measures. He linked these efforts to the Royal Government of Cambodia’s Pentagonal Strategy and MLMUPC’s broader direction towards sustainable buildings and urban development.
Julie Robles, ALCBT Regional Project Manager at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), underlined the importance of strengthening both technical knowledge and practical capacity to support Cambodia’s transition to low-carbon buildings. She highlighted that the BEAT and MRV trainings provide complementary skills—enabling building professionals to assess embodied and operational carbon at the building level, while helping government officials and policymakers use building-sector data and scenario analysis to track progress, test policy options, and inform evidence-based decarbonisation strategies.
During the BEAT training, HEAT International introduced participants to whole-life carbon assessment and the growing importance of addressing both embodied carbon, associated with building materials and construction, and operational carbon, associated with energy use during building operation.
Participants were guided through the BEAT methodology, data requirements, Environmental Product Declarations, and the interpretation of assessment results. Hands-on exercises enabled participants to calculate operational carbon, assess embodied carbon using building Bills of Quantities, and apply the tool to a building lifecycle carbon case study.
BEAT is a free and accessible tool developed under the ALCBT Project to help users estimate building carbon emissions and support informed decisions towards low-carbon buildings. The training brought together stakeholders from government, the building and construction industry, architecture and engineering, energy services, material manufacturing, academia, and financial institutions.
Day 2
On 4 August 2026, the focus shifted from individual buildings to the broader building stock through an introductory training on the ALCBT Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Tool, targeted particularly at government officials and policymakers.
The session introduced whole-life carbon from a policy and planning perspective and demonstrated how MRV can support consistent measurement, reporting, and tracking of building-sector carbon performance. Participants explored the methodology and data requirements of the tool and discussed how building-stock scenario analysis can help assess different decarbonisation pathways for Cambodia.
The MRV Tool enables policymakers to examine the potential effects of policy measures such as building codes, material standards, energy-efficiency requirements, and building retrofit measures on embodied and operational carbon emissions. The session also highlighted Cambodia’s building-stock data gaps and the importance of stronger data collection and institutional coordination for evidence-based policymaking.
In the afternoon, the focus moved to Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and the importance of reliable local carbon data for construction materials. The knowledge exchange brought together building-material manufacturers, government representatives, academia, and project partners to discuss EPD readiness, data availability, barriers, and opportunities in Cambodia.
Rohit Nepali of HEAT International explained that an EPD provides standardised and independently verified information on the environmental impacts of a product based on life cycle assessment. For the construction sector, EPDs can provide credible product-level carbon information that strengthens embodied-carbon assessment and allows lower-carbon materials to be identified and compared.
The discussion highlighted that Cambodia’s EPD market is still at an early stage. At the time of the session, only six official Cambodian EPDs were available in BEAT, all covering cement products from two manufacturers. This highlights significant scope to expand verified environmental data for other locally produced construction materials.
Rohit highlighted that, for Cambodian manufacturers, EPDs are increasingly relevant not only for carbon measurement but also for competitiveness and market access. Verified environmental data can help manufacturers demonstrate the performance of lower-carbon products, respond to growing green procurement and building-certification requirements, and better position Cambodian construction materials for domestic, regional, and green markets.
The session also recognised current challenges, including the cost and data requirements of developing EPDs and limited local LCA capacity. Through ALCBT and BEAT, generic emission factors can help bridge data gaps while local capacity in life cycle assessment and carbon accounting is strengthened, providing a pathway from initial carbon measurement towards independently verified product declarations.
The programme concluded with an important institutional milestone: the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between HEAT International and CamTech University on institutional collaboration for the adoption and use of the Building Emission Assessment Tool (BEAT) in Cambodia.
The collaboration will support the integration of lifecycle carbon assessment and BEAT into teaching, research, capacity building, and practical project-based learning, with particular relevance to CamTech’s Architecture and Interior Design programmes. By enabling students, lecturers, and researchers to work directly with practical tools for assessing embodied and operational carbon, the partnership is intended to help build long-term national capacity.
Dr. Leng Phirom, Vice President for Academic Affairs at CamTech University, reflected on the university’s development and its Class of 2025 graduation, while highlighting CamTech’s emphasis on practical learning, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He expressed strong support for the partnership with HEAT International and the opportunity it creates to connect academic learning with emerging sustainability challenges in Cambodia’s building sector.
He noted that collaboration around BEAT can help students and faculty strengthen their understanding of low-carbon design and lifecycle carbon assessment while encouraging practical application, research, and innovation. The partnership is particularly relevant for future architects and built-environment professionals, who will increasingly need to consider carbon performance alongside conventional design, functionality, and cost.
The activities held on 3–4 August marked another step towards strengthening Cambodia’s capacity for low-carbon buildings. By connecting building-level assessment through BEAT, policy and scenario analysis through MRV, construction-material data through EPDs, and long-term academic capacity through the CamTech partnership, the programme demonstrated how technical tools, policy, market development, and education can work together to support building-sector decarbonisation.
The next step will be to build on these foundations by strengthening Cambodia-specific building and material data, expanding lifecycle carbon assessment capacity, and supporting wider adoption of low-carbon building practices.
About ALCBT
The Asia Low Carbon Buildings Transition (ALCBT) Project is a five-year multi-stakeholder project that seeks to reduce GHG emissions by catalysing nationwide transition towards Low Carbon Buildings in five Asian countries, namely Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
The ALCBT project is being implemented by the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is partnership with the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), and HEAT International. This project is supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the Federal Government of Germany. Within the Federal Government, the IKI is anchored in the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).
