Scots consultancy launches new service to help reduce embodied carbon in construction

Dr Bonahis Oko

CONSTRUCTION consultancy Soben is urging industry-wide improvements to how carbon is calculated and reduced, as the firm launches a new carbon cost management service.

The service will be led by Dr Bonahis Oko, former Bouygues Energies & Services UK sustainability lead.

To help meet ambitious environmental targets, Soben revealed that contractors are increasingly coming across sustainability clauses and being incentivised to encourage carbon reductions. While there have been advancements in reducing operational emissions, the business said a lack of consistent benchmarking and reporting is ‘hindering’ progress around embodied carbon.

Soben Carbon Cost Management is described as a response to the need for more accurate baselines to demonstrate the impact of carbon savings. It is designed to provide contractors and developers with advice around emissions, promising ‘greater granularity’ than the basic carbon calculators on the market.

A chartered environmentalist, keynote speaker, and environmental thought leader, Dr Oko joins Soben from Bouygues Energies & Services Contracting UK, where she held the role of environment, carbon and sustainability lead, managing delivery of the firm’s net zero carbon policy and sustainability strategy.

Her team will be tasked with helping organisations identify greener alternatives – building carbon considerations into cost plans to reduce the carbon footprint of projects and the cost of carbon offsetting.

Scott Smyth, Soben founder & CEO, said, “There is an urgent need for industry-wide transformation to improve carbon performance – something the basic calculators currently available won’t solve. Soben is investing in sustainability to lead the way towards greater clarity and consistency in how carbon is monitored, calculated, and reduced, across the supply chain.”