Chile: whole life carbon tool and data harmonisation with OpenBDF

Context

Chile’s construction sector is expanding, and the country has set ambitious decarbonisation goals. What was missing was the machinery in between: a standardised method and an open tool for measuring emissions across the whole life cycle, and credible benchmarks to measure against. The project was launched under the CORFO Chile Public Goods Call to build exactly that.

Objectives

Align the data architecture from day one. The Chilean tool is built on the Open Building Data Format, so its data is structured the way the global database expects rather than translated afterwards.
Harmonise the classifications. Building element classes, material classes and quantity take-offs, mapped between Chilean practice and the international schema.
Open up public procurement data. Quantity take-offs from Mercado Público, Chile’s public procurement system, extended into a non-residential building database.

Why the sequencing matters

Most national datasets are built first and harmonised later, which is how data silos form: by the time anyone tries to compare two countries, the differences are baked into the structure and the work has to be redone. Adopting the shared framework at the proposal stage avoids that, and means Chilean buildings can be compared with buildings anywhere else without a translation layer.

What it should produce

An output data file aligned with OpenBDF, so Chilean building cases import directly into the global platform
A database mapping real carbon values in Chile
A framework underpinning the national whole life carbon tool

The harder parts are known: there is no standardised material classification at the local level, and extracting quantity take-offs from public project data is still largely manual.