For a sustainable built environment and progress towards a net zero future, every sector must transform.

Innovation and new technologies continue to improve how buildings operate, bringing productivity, efficiencies and greater user comfort – but the industry is still finding its feet in reducing built-form emissions. In the race to meet global agreements and targets for emissions reduction, we need to work together to leave a lighter footprint.

Expectations and requirements for greener construction materials, processes and activities are pushing the envelope. While we can retrofit and continually update technologies as they become available to reduce operational carbon, upfront embodied carbon is locked in before the building opens and is often heavily defined by very early stages of design.

Reducing embodied carbon needn’t be viewed solely through an environmental lens. Greener buildings are able to attract lower lending costs and achieve premiums with investors, purchasers and tenants. Shrinking a project’s emissions is likely to pay off in the long term, especially as sustainability standards, certifying bodies and governments become more stringent, stronger requirements and penalties emerge, and carbon offsetting becomes less acceptable, more expensive, and harder to achieve.

Across the world we are seeing carbon measurement and reduction targets embedded into permitting processes, government policies, frameworks and legislation. In Australia, New South Wales has committed funding to ensure transformation and it’s natural that Victoria will follow. In New Zealand, it is already mandated. We also see evolving requirements in Asia for certifications such as Green Building and LEED, with local and international investors driving the need to measure and report on embodied carbon.

Let’s start building experience now, sharing our learnings and moving to minimise our industry’s steep-capped footprint while we house, teach, care for, entertain and transport our ever-growing population. There will be a price tag, but we can work together to limit it before action on emissions becomes mandatory.

Understand your priorities and project 

Every developer will have different objectives, priorities and targets for their carbon budget – whether it’s pursuing GBCA or NABERS accreditations, meeting internal stakeholder targets or complying with government requirements. Reputable advice and support will help clarify goals and map pathways to achieve them.

Quantity surveying goes hand in hand with measuring upfront embodied carbon. As a design progresses and is costed for currency, it can be costed or rated for carbon too.

Choose an advisor experienced in your project type and one who understands your priorities. As with value engineering, options to reduce embodied carbon and cost must be weighed against a building’s function, purpose and brand. Cost-benefit analysis needn’t be limited to capital expenditure.

Consider embodied carbon early 

The greatest opportunity to reduce embodied carbon is from day 1 – when it is still possible to identify where all priorities lie, optimise design, explore alternatives, and consider low-carbon, recycled or reused materials. Time pressures associated with redesign make it inefficient to revisit a concept design and trying to adjust for carbon later can increase costs.

Focusing early on the building skeleton (structure and façade) while also provisioning for a range of mechanical and electrical solutions will ensure that the heaviest emitters are considered. As the building design evolves, additional elements can be weighed for carbon cost benefit, ensuring the full project team is alert to the greatest impacts and applies learnings to future projects.

Materials engineering is moving fast, with a constant stream of innovative new products. Seeking guidance, exploring the industry and trying new lower-carbon opportunities adds value and can be managed for cost.

Get reliable, real-life, whole-of-life data 

The evolving landscape of options and standards brings some uncertainty. Simply applying a benchmark cost percentage to a reduction target may not be appropriate given the number of projects available to be referenced, the ever-expanding market for green materials, and often unstandardised approaches. Every project and certification option is unique, so engage with consultants who can look at the project in detail, determine the likely pathway to realise objectives, and price it appropriately.

Ideally, your consultant should have access to rich, current, sector-specific data to inform their calculations and recommendations – and the ability to collaborate with a broader team with on-the-ground experience across the lifecycle of your project type. Generic references have limitations in representing how each development will be operated and managed over its life. The ability to draw on a pool of information will refine the cost benefit analysis, drawing on experience rather than templates.

Include carbon in contracts 

Whether or not your construction project has specific reduction targets, consider incorporating policy and legislative changes into contractual agreements to protect you throughout the often lengthy duration. It’s a good idea to clearly define carbon reduction parameters, identify levers and triggers for change, and determine how to deal with variations, extensions of time, latent conditions and the like. These aspects may not affect the materiality of the building but can affect site operations – and, in turn, the carbon footprint.

Aim for the stars – and a greener future 

It’s often said that what gets measured gets managed. Whether or not you’re targeting accreditation or certification, there’s no doubt that transparent and credible costing and tracking of embodied carbon will drive our sector to use less, recycle more, build smarter, and learn. It will certainly add value and may save money too.

Despite challenges and uncertainties, reducing embodied carbon is a rich opportunity to create sustainable and resilient built environments.

This article was originally published on the WT Australia web site. Republished with permission.

About the author

Imogen Lyons is WT’s Carbon Management Lead. Her experience in carbon management spans various government and private sector developments including airport infrastructure, high rise student accommodation, build to rent towers, office buildings and retrofit / refurbishment developments. Since starting in the industry in 2006, Imogen has provided commercial cost management services on various industry leading projects across Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as working closely with WT’s offices across Asia to share insights into embodied carbon cost management.  

Imogen recently presented at the CTBUH conference in Singapore on calculating and contracting for embodied carbon. Together with a group of industry leaders across various disciplines and countries, the challenges, opportunities and insights encountered over various projects were work-shopped and recommendations provided to CTBUH to inform tall buildings sustainability initiatives.