ANDERSON Bell Christie (ABC) has produced a white paper that identifies ‘significant change’ is needed across the construction industry to meet the national net zero emissions target by 2045.
The practice has released the paper – called Balance – in the run to the Scottish elections this year. ABC is calling for the Scottish Government to establish a framework for transition to circular construction that follows their Balance roadmaps.
Director Jonathan McQuillan explained, “With less than 20 years to the deadline, time is of the essence.”
ABC said architects can help clients understand the cumulative environmental impact of their choices by assessing the environmental performance of buildings throughout their entire lifecycle – including both embodied and operational carbon.
Whole Life Carbon – the total carbon emissions associated with a built asset throughout its entire lifecycle – can be calculated using stages defined by European standards EN 15978 and EN 15804. These stages are: A (creating and assembling materials), B (in use), C (end of life), and D (beyond end of life).
The research indicates there are three main transitions that the construction industry must go through to achieve Net Zero Whole Life Carbon.
Initial gains can be made by transitioning materials to lower embodied carbon options.
The second transition will see a move to circular construction. ABC added that all lifecycle methodologies agree that inorganic materials are either sent to landfill, or undergo energy intensive recycling processes. Current lifecycle analysis assumes that at end of life, most organic materials release their carbon back to the atmosphere. This means carbon sequestered into the material at stages A1-3 is released back into the atmosphere in stages C1-4. This, ABC revealed, provides the imperative to plan for and action the reuse of materials. ABC’s own lifecycle analysis indicates that, to achieve true net zero, the entire construction industry must become circular. The practice said the sector must shift the focus from recycling to reclamation for reuse.
Grid decarbonisation provides the third transition. ABC said materials produced in the UK will have lower levels of embodied carbon, but it is worth noting that over time these materials will represent a diminishing proportion of that used in construction. By 2045 a third of construction materials used in the UK are predicted to come from nations that are targeting net zero by 2060 and 2070.
Jonathan McQuillan added, “We believe this is a reasonable and achievable figure for the construction industry which will enable net zero to be achieved using a local approach to carbon offset within Scotland.”
