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The publication of the Low Carbon Construction Action Plan earlier this year marked a genuine step-change in the area of embodied carbon. Indeed, whole life carbon and embodied carbon were the single biggest topics that industry approached the government about, demonstrating that this is a significant issue for the construction industry. Despite the government's report, there are still many mixed messages on these issues and, as such, the industry is still grappling with questions about the best course of action that will deliver carbon savings, but also save money.
Embodied carbon is a subject area which is becoming increasingly important for the construction and property industries. The whole life cycle of carbon within a building includes both embodied and operational carbon. Businesses need to get to grips with embodied carbon issues, deal with the disconnect between construction and operation and ensure that buildings are being operated in a low carbon manner. The industry also needs to be able to value the carbon impact of existing buildings and be able to retrofit and operate these more effectively for a low-carbon future. This increases in importance as energy prices soar.
A recent report from Low Carbon Workplace entitled Less Embodied carbon, more value? suggests that embodied carbon represents a very small percentage of the operational carbon of office buildings. However, the data used to build the above analysis compares the embodied carbon in the construction of a new building with the operational carbon of old and inefficient office buildings. Embodied carbon becomes important when constructing a new building and in refurbishing existing buildings. There, comparing the operational carbon of existing buildings with the embodied carbon of its past construction is unfair.
For a new office building, the operational carbon is roughly half the value of this analysis. If we use data which compares like with like then the embodied carbon value jumps from the 10 to 15% outlined in that report to 20 to 30%. This is obviously significant – embodied carbon can represent up to a third of the whole life carbon of a building. The issue here relates to the figure used to calculate an embodied carbon footprint – 150kg CO2 per m 2 per year. This is old data – collected in the mid 1990s and reflecting existing office buildings at the time, not modern buildings. Newer data, supported by CIBSE and RIBA, suggests a figure of 75kg.
In addition, if we include the planned decarbonisation of UK electricity and assume future electricity will be cleaner, the fraction of embodied carbon becomes higher still – up to as much as 45% more. This demonstrates that it is a mistake to downplay the value of embodied carbon. That is not to say that day-to-day operational emissions are not important. They are. However, we need to pay equal attention to both areas if we are to make genuine progress in sustainable building.
It could also lead to confusion for those who have put time, effort and energy into analysing the embodied carbon of their own construction practices. Has it been a waste of time? Should they have just poured all their attention into cutting energy costs?
I want to reassure construction and property companies, many of whom have made some great strides in this area, that their efforts have not been wasted. For other companies who feel their business would benefit from them spending more time on dealing with these somewhat complex issues, we have joined forces with CIRIA (Construction Industry Research and Information Association) to offer construction professionals further expert insight into carbon reduction through the Whole Life Carbon in Construction conference on 15th November in London.
Aimed at industry professionals including contractors, product manufacturers and sustainability managers, the conference will feature addresses from leading industry experts who will present the latest developments alongside real life case histories on this subject. The speakers have all been chosen for their specialist knowledge of the latest developments in whole life carbon in construction. They include representatives from some of the UK’s most forward thinking construction companies on low carbon: Balfour Beatty, Kier and F&G/Atkins and Davis Langdon.
Dr Craig Jones is a Senior Associate at Sustain
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