The need for improved carbon measurement

Globally, the built environment is estimated to account for 39% of total carbon emissions. This includes ‘embodied carbon’ and ‘operational carbon’ emissions. Embodied Carbon (approximately 11% of global emissions) includes the ‘upfront’ carbon emissions from the construction process but also all the maintenance and replacements of components over the life of the building or asset.

It’s no secret that for a sustainable future we need to drive towards net zero carbon emissions across the built environment. Our calculations therefore can’t ignore the impact of embodied emissions – something that is notoriously much harder to report than operational emissions.

The measurement and reporting of embodied carbon is not universally mandated on construction projects. Where it is undertaken ‘what’ is measured and ‘how’ it’s measured is not consistent. This means if you engaged different teams to report embodied carbon for the same thing,you will likely get very different numbers back. Not that any of them are necessarily incorrect – it’s just what they have measured and what data they have used is likely to be different.

So therefore, we cannot be confident we are always making the right choices to drive toward net zero. This inconsistency also means that it is not easy to compare, improve and learn from other construction projects.

The slightly brighter news is that the industry is aware of this problem and is stepping up to the challenge. Considerable efforts are being made to improve guidance on how you measure whole life carbon. In 2017 RICS released its professional statement for whole life carbon assessments, and this is going to be updated and further improved early next year. Along with other guidance like PAS2080 and CIBSE’s TM65, we are heading to a place where we know what to measure and how to do it.

However, a lack of available and consistent data remains a big barrier. If you are lucky enough to find the carbon emissions data you need for an assessment, chances are that you will find different values being reported. That is why several key built environment organisations, representing the UK construction industry, have committed to the development of a new open-source carbon database named the Built Environment Carbon Database.

The database is being designed to be the main source of data for carbon estimating and benchmarking in the UK construction sector and will serve as a practical tool to support the decarbonisation of our buildings and infrastructure.  

Organisations involved in the development of the Built Environment Carbon Database include BRE, Carbon Trust, CIBSE, CIC, CIOB, ICE, IStructE, RIBA, RICS, UK GBC and the Environment Agency.  
 
Find out more, download our white paper and get involved by visiting www.becd.co.uk