RICS have responded to recommendations within the government’s Low Carbon Construction action plan, and announced the launch of the first information paper for the measurement of embodied carbon. The paper, which details an approach to early stage carbon accounting, was published as an exposure draft on Wednesday 21st March at Ecobuild. Leadenhall Building - energy efficient but high embodied carbon.

Acting directly on recommendations set out within the government’s Low Carbon Construction action plan, RICS’ paper is the first step towards enabling Government and industry agreement of a standard method of measuring embodied carbon. RICS will be collecting feedback from industry over the coming months to inform a final published version of this paper in July 2012.

The note stresses the importance of developing a methodological plan to the measurement of carbon and gives comparisons between the levels of embodied carbon within new build versus refurbishment. Calculation methodologies (including assessment boundaries), tools, and data sources for measuring carbon are included, as well as a step by step guide on how to conduct an assessment during the following phases of a building project:

design;
materials and product manufacture;
distribution; and
assembly on site.
Guidance for the in-use and refurbish/demolish stages is currently under development.

Martin Russell-Croucher, Director of Sustainability and Special Projects RICS, who led the development of this paper said: “We see this note as the start of what will probably be a long journey to an industry ‘standard method’ for carbon measurement and accounting.

“In the meantime, however, this paper is an important first step in terms of introducing a carbon assessment system, supporting the government’s ambition for requirements for whole-life (embodied + operational) carbon appraisals to be factored into feasibility studies, and thereby ensuring the construction industry’s contribution to the wider UK carbon reduction agenda.”

The paper is aimed at quantity surveyors and design teams, setting out a practical approach by which quantity surveyors can contribute to carbon reduction targets during the design stage of a project.

The embodied carbon results of a selection of high impact building elements such as ground floor construction, frame and foundations are included in the note, as well as how carbon reduction measures can affect these. Foundations for example are shown as having a total embodied carbon of 733 tonnes, compared with 366 tonnes following carbon mitigation.

The note also includes a series of case studies of embodied carbon assessments undertaken on high profile projects including the Farringdon Station redevelopment and the Leadenhall Building. The results of the Leadenhall Building study showed that 84 per cent of the total embodied carbon was from materials used to construct the building – an assessment that can be used to inform best practice and reduce carbon on future projects.

Pending industry feedback, RICS will be undertaking further work and extending this information paper to support challenges such as how to deal with the carbon at the ‘end of life’ where there is significant potential for recovering and recycling products. RICS will also be supporting ongoing work into the creation of a carbon assessment data structure that follows standard industry data calculations – critical to successful carbon accounting.