We want to take on entire contracts in order to be able to deliver the complete solution that is best for our clients.
For example, in residential architecture, we might see a ratio of one third embodied carbon to two thirds operational carbon across a building’s lifespan.On the other hand, with a building like a data centre, where the operational energy of the building is very high, operational carbon will always be a larger portion of the total, whole-life carbon of the building..
The good news is that our data is improving all the time, and the industry is gaining momentum around the issue of sustainability with respect to embodied carbon.Within the next couple of years, we’re going to see an amazing increase in knowledge.Project life cycle assessments (LCA) are becoming standard practice.
Five years ago, that simply wasn’t the case for most consultancies.There’s also a lot more guidance around now, for example, from bodies like the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE)..
Sustainable building materials and platform construction.
One topic which must be addressed in relation to the reduction of embodied carbon is the sustainable use of building materials.Construction will become more systems based: as an industry we are fragmented and siloed, this will help us break out from these and collaborate with shared data..
There will be much more upfront design in the process,.Industry Challenge.
The construction process is linear, sharing still involves multiple ‘hand offs’, between parties with imperfect transfer of information and data leading to rework and duplication..The greater level of technical design required pre-planning application submission will change the cashflow profile of many projects..
(Editor: Compact Mice)