38 EMBODIED CARBON COUNTS: THE TRANSFORMATIONAL POWER OF PART Z ROUND TABLE REVIEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT
• Ivan Jovanovich, Atelier Ten: Treat it as an opportunity, and tax virgin materials.
• Will Arnold, Useful Simple Trust: A Ministerial statement setting out a timeline for embodied carbon reporting.
• Kirsty Girvan, UKGBC: If housebuilders are a barrier, let’s look at the commercial sector.
• Diego Padilla-Phillips, WSP: Disclose our designs’ Scope 4 emissions & a ‘Help to Buy Green’ Government scheme.
GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO LEAD Architect Tim den Dekker said that mandating embodied carbon “was not something the markets can sort out; it needs Government to set the lead”
materials should be made “to have meaningful impact.” He said currently, such decisions could be left until a very late stage, and embodied carbon might not feature at all. Diego Padilla-Phillipps cautioned that the need for pre-stressed concrete meant higher strength precast concrete mixes in many projects, and Cowen once more highlighted “early engagement,” as the method to identify the ways to achieve performance while minimising emissions, but asserted “it doesn’t happen.” Ewan Duffi n emphasised that early stage design thinking could for example reduce a column grid, and “reduce concrete usage by 30%” on projects. Simon Sturgis advocated the ‘stick’ approach of a “mechanism [requiring developers] to report their square metre carbon rate, in the same way cars and fl ights do. If people are required to report, it will start the process where people then start comparing to things like the NZCBS, but also becomes a competitive issue.” He accepted Simon Wyatt’s assertion that EPCs “haven’t driven competition,” but said they were “absurdly inaccurate.” WSP’s Padilla-Phillips mentioned a “simplifi ed calculator” the
fi rm developed with the Future Homes Hub, to “access our data for different wall build-ups,” rather than having to “calculate every single level from scratch.” Simon Wyatt that working with LETI and the GLA had shown Cundall the benefi ts of “breaking down carbon budgets into specifi c disciplines like structural engineers, facades, MEP; where everyone knows their targets.” He added: “It’s how you optimise every single area, because you could have two buildings on two completely different foundations.” Simon Sturgis concluded: “What I come across time and again is people wanting quick answers, and that is quite often based on preconceptions. So, for example, the classic preconception is that concrete is bad, timber is good, but the concrete industry is making huge efforts to improve the performance of concrete.”
Incentives & scale
Attendees generally stressed the need for strong regulation fi rst on embodied carbon to force a pivot in the sector, but also a range of other possible incentives for embodied carbon reporting and minimisation. These included taxing virgin materials, and dropping VAT on other materials with low embodied carbon. Government- backed loans were another incentive (mooted by Ewan Duffi n) to drive low carbon residential construction.
Several speakers at the round table noted that reporting embodied carbon on individual existing dwellings of different sizes and nature within overall developments was challenging – however she warned against over-simplifying data reporting to counter this, if it risked
• Simon Wyatt, Cundall: Make the data availability publicly – it’s heavily used at stages one and two.
• Lee Cowen, Milbank Concrete Products: Better standardisation on EPDs and guidance from Government, and people held to account for the content; industry has to engage better with the supply chain.
• Ewan Duffi n, Harley Haddow: Prioritise maintenance budgets to look after what we already have
• Stephanie Baker, SEES (Sadler Energy & Environmental Services: Government to get some regulation out for data consistency and validity, and we need data to build on.
• Simon Sturgis, RIBA Sustainability Futures Group: A Ministerial Statement on whole life carbon reporting & the Government to do WLCA on all their own projects.
• Ellen Willis, Chetwoods: Government; introduce an imperfect regulation just to get it started. The industry needs to lean into uncomfortable conversations.
• Tim den Dekker, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios: Simplify and prioritise the ask – report whole life carbon but not limit.
“losing the quality of data.” Ellen Willis assured the group that from smaller projects, “a lot of the information is not hugely technical, and I have had the time to fi nd that information.”
Conclusion Our delegates confi rmed that we are a long way from being able to say that embodied carbon limits and reporting are becoming part of mainstream building delivery. Helping educate the sector on the benefi ts, including by growing ‘carbon literacy’ at round tables, and addressing misconceptions, is the fi rst step on the road to verifying embodied carbon and therefore create truly sustainable projects.
As we approached the concluding recommendations for industry and government from the delegates, Simon Wyatt pointed out that Simon Sturgis (as RIBA’s Sustainability Futures Chair) had already made recommendations to the Climate Change Committee, including to adopt Part Z, but its likely fate remains hard to predict. He said that if the regulation does happen, “we’re going to be collecting a lot of data, and I’d like it to be available to everybody and not hidden or behind a paywall or hidden. The more data we have, the better decisions we can make.”
The big takeaway from this session is that while the construction industry has organically developed a range of useful tools for embodied carbon reduction and reporting, the ball is fi rmly in the Government’s court for mandating the step change that is required. We hope the relevant Ministries will hear and listen to the insights from this expert group as they progress towards net zero.
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