Evaluation of embodied energy and embodied carbon of construction materials and processes will enable construction industry stakeholders to consider sustainability as a design criterion in the planning phase. This would help in choosing appropriate building plan, materials and construction methods and technologies to minimize the life cycle energy.A comprehensive inventory database that is updated at regular intervals is needed to facilitate the above evaluation. The construction sector contributes to about 8% of India’s GDP. Significant growth is expected in the Indian construction industry in the next decade. There is a strong need for economic growth with optimal use of natural resources. Methodologies used for creating the embodied energy database in other countries needs to be simplified before these are applied in India. This study presents a process flowchart that can be used to create a simplified method for embodied energy measurement considering user requirements and resource constraints. © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London.