The construction of our built environment is a major driver of global material use, greenhouse gas emissions, and their impacts on people and ecosystems. Nevertheless, there is a critical gap in understanding which purposes of construction activity drive these environmental impacts. To yield a detailed yet comprehensive and consistent representation of construction in the global economy, this research project proposes a multi-unit approach that expands the construction industry in multi-regional input-output tables. Focusing on the European Union, the project oPers insights into the climate impacts of five diPerent construction subsectors (buildings, roads, railways, electricity infrastructure, other civil engineering) by integrating bottom-up data on 14 materials used in the construction of 17 types of structures. Key findings of this disaggregation include: 1) The carbon footprint of construction increases with detailed input resolution. 2) Building construction dominates the carbon footprint of construction in most EU countries, but metal- and material-intensive civil engineering is more carbon- intensive than building construction. 3) Electricity and railway infrastructure relies more on outsourced emissions than building and road construction. The exploration of integrating bottom-up information on buildings and infrastructure from material stock analysis, life cycle inventories, and geographic information systems with economic statistics highlights future avenues for research on physical flows, as well as calls for a further standardisation and harmonisation of detailed national accounts. The developed procedure can have broader applications, benefiting urban planning, consumption footprint assessments, and scenario analyses aligned with international climate goals.