One of the seemingly more mysterious concepts in building green is embodied energy. What is it, and do green building rating systems recognize and account for embodied energy? In reality, it is not that difficult to define it, but measuring it is infinitely more complex. The basic premise is that sustainability measures should include all energy consumed to produce the building or project, and that includes the energy to extract raw materials like minerals and convert them to products like cement, building stones, sheetrock, and paint. In other words, Embodied energy considers energy consumed from the point of removing raw materials from the earth to the final disposal of materials not used or removed from the site or existing building. This course demystifies embodied energy and identifies what you need to know before sourcing materials for green building projects. The course also reviews how LEED v4 addresses embodied energy, and especially in the Materials and Resources section.