The building sector accounts for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions, with embodiedcarbon gaining importance as operational energy use decreases. Heating systems play a key role in bothoperational energy demand and material-related emissions at the building level. This study comparesthe embodied and operational carbon emissions of district heating and ground-source heat pump systemsin a Swedish multi-family residential building.The assessment includes embodied emissions from the construction stage (A1-A5) and operationalemissions from one year of energy use. Embodied carbon is evaluated using Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) based on available Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and generic climate data, whileoperational energy use is calculated using dynamic energy simulations. The system boundary is limitedto the building level: cooling, end-of-life stages and external infrastructure are excluded.The results show that differences in system configuration and material intensity lead to variations inembodied emissions, while operational emissions are primarily influenced by the choice of heat source.The study also highlights limitations in current LCA practice, particularly the lack of system-level EPDsfor building technology systems and the reliance on assumptions and generic datasets. These findingsprovide building-level decision support and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of tradeoffsbetween embodied and operational carbon under Swedish regulatory and methodologicalconditions.