Building materials don't have "embodied" carbon (other than the captured carbon of cellulosic materials), but rather a carbon (or global warming) footprint caused by the release into the atmosphere of CO2 and other heat-trapping gasses during manufacture and transport.
 
In general, the more local and natural and recycled the product, the smaller the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint often closely parallels the embodied energy, since most of that energy is petrochemical or coal. Petrochemical foams and cementitious materials have the highest carbon footprints, but those are somewhat offset by the life-cycle reduction in consumption of fossil fuels by increased thermal efficiency and by the long-term potential durability of cementitious materials.

--- On Thu, 12/11/08, Suzy Hodgson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


Are there any externally published factors for the embodied carbon of different insulation materials?