Ewan Duffin, Harley Haddow associate director
Embodied carbon is something we should all be talking about in the race to net zero and push to meet government targets. With many sustainable initiatives and methods such as heat pumps and new legislation challenging the status quo, how is the industry going to combat this particular issue?
Building and construction presently accounts for 40% of energy related CO2 emissions. With a climate emergency declared by both the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and The Institution of Structural Engineers, this demonstrates just how serious the situation is.
Embodied carbon is defined as greenhouse gas emissions arising from the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials. The issue has been explored within the industry over the past five to ten years, but the severity of its impact is coming to the fore now.
The sector needs to urgently combat embodied carbon and use relevant methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, with ongoing demand for construction and necessary materials, this isn’t going to be a quick fix.
Cutting embodied carbon is crucial for the engineering industry but also for other areas of our lives. Stopping driving your car, for example, can save 200,000kg CO2 per year, while cutting meat and dairy from your diet can save 2,000kg. With net zero targets looming closer, we as a collective need to be thinking of the future.
As the industry is responsible for almost half of energy related carbon emissions, imagine the impact it would make if we accelerated our use of more sustainable materials and methods.
Here are my top tips for reducing embodied carbon and how we can all play our part in meeting net zero targets.
- Build nothing, repurpose and refurbish buildings. We are starting to see a lot of buildings being repurposed and brought back to their former glory, an example of this is our work on Dalkeith Restoration Yard and Apex Waterloo Place Hotel. The former stable block at Dalkeith Country Park incorporated a new store and café without losing the building’s original historic charm. Similarly, the Apex hotel, previously a Grade A-listed building, was converted into a 187-bedroom hotel, utilising its ornate and unique spaces.
- Build less and only build to meet the needs of communities and cities. Again, maximise the utilisation of existing buildings before making a decision to build completely brand new. Here we could also look into the structural efficiency of buildings and see if this would be suitable against the project brief.
- Build clever and reuse materials. Utilise lower carbon alternatives, choose carbon sequestering materials where possible and use high-recycled content materials if you can. Consider what materials you are currently using and if there are more sustainable alternatives available such as mass timber, bamboo, hempcrete, recycled plastic cladding and low carbon concrete. By using these types of materials, engineers will be constructing designs for deconstruction and reuse, utilising every material to its full potential.
- Build efficiently and minimise design loads. Use efficient forms and grids to scale back the design load where possible and maximise the use of materials available to you.
- Minimise waste as much as possible. There are many materials used throughout construction but to ensure there is minimal waste, only order the required amount and the materials you actually need rather than over-ordering for safety. This can be difficult as supply chains are still suffering from the pandemic and waitlists can be long but where possible, plan and ensure there will be no waste from construction.
- Build for a purpose and for the long-term. When building, consider if the demand supports a permanent building and if the building can be built and supported sustainably.
To reach the UK Government’s net zero targets by 2050 in England and the Scottish Government’s target of 2045, our industry must plan ahead and address the ongoing issue of embodied carbon in building and constructing the towns and cities of our future.
To find out more about Harley Haddow’s net zero strategy please visit https://www.harleyhaddow.com/services/net-zero/
