Emidat, a leading provider of environmental data solutions for the construction industry, announced a €4 million seed funding round led by General Catalyst. This funding round will enable Emidat to support the construction industry in reducing the world’s environmental footprint, starting with a revolution in labeling every building material.
With the EU introducing mandatory standards for building product declarations next month, Emidat is building the operating system for environmental data in construction. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are product labels that provide data about the material’s environmental impact in each stage of the product life cycle, such as production, construction, operation, and the potential for reuse, recovery, or recycling. Using them, architects, project developers, and contractors can make informed decisions about every material in a project.
The construction and real estate sector has been responsible for a large percentage of the global greenhouse gas emissions and more than half of the impact comes from embodied carbon: emissions arising from the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials.
Even as modern buildings become more energy efficient, the impact of embodied carbon is increasing, up from 11% (4.48bn t CO2e) of all global GHG emissions in 2021. Furthermore, some 2.4 trillion ft² (230 billion m²) of new floor area is being added globally over the next 40 years – equal to building an entire New York City every month for 40 years.
Currently, creating EPDs has been costly, fragmented, and time-consuming for a sector that has been slow to digitalize. Based on the cost of producing a verified certificate for 500,000 construction products, the European market could be worth at least €5 billion a year. Manufacturers will need to create 25 times the number of EPDs that have been published so far.
To achieve the EU’s target of net zero by 2050, construction has to be measured and embodied carbon reduced rapidly. And Emidat offers the data layer that makes it happen, integrating with existing workflows and accepting data via API, Excel, or BIM. The database consists of environmental data on over 150k construction products and can be accessed via API and UI. By utilizing the platform, material manufacturers can benefit from the following:
— Streamlined EPD creation – Emidat’s software simplifies the process of creating EPDs, making it faster, easier, and more affordable.
— Increased transparency – With a centralized repository for environmental data, Emidat makes it easier for stakeholders to access and compare information.
— Improved sustainability – Manufacturers can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and differentiate themselves from competitors.
Founded in Munich by Lisa Oberaigner (CEO) and Florian Fesch (CTO) last year, Emidat has rapidly secured some of the world’s leading global suppliers of construction materials as clients, including three of the world’s largest concrete manufacturers.
Emidat has been working with a number of leading building material manufacturers in Europe, including companies in the concrete, insulation, steel, and facade industries. Customers report that they have cut the cost and time for generating EPDs by over 70%, while saving time on data collection and text writing through the platform’s embedded AI. The investment from General Catalyst will enable Emidat to expand its platform, accelerate product development, and grow its team.
KEY QUOTES:
“Buildings are where we live, work and learn – they are at the heart of all productive economies. While we make progress in decarbonising the energy sector, construction continues to have a huge and damaging impact on our planet. Since 75% of the buildings we will be using in 2050 are yet to be built, there is a huge opportunity to reduce the impact of this sector. By providing transparent and accessible environmental data, we can help decarbonize the industry and create a more sustainable built environment.”
– Lisa Oberaigner, CEO and co-founder of Emidat
“We see Emidat as a turnkey solution for decarbonizing the mission-critical built environment from the ground up; it will increasingly function as a collaborative platform where the industry can collectively access and exchange material data. We believe this will help drive the speed of industry transformation and value chain efficiency.”
– Samuel Beyer, Investor at General Catalyst
