EMBODIED CARBON
TOOLS TO TACKLE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
01 There is widespread agreement that we need to reduce carbon emissions. Where there tends to be disagreement, is how construction needs to change to achieve this. Progress requires new tools and a shared language, says Timber Development UK Sustainability Director Charlie Law. The construction and built environment sector are responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, of which a significant percentage comes from the extraction, processing and energy
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intensive manufacturing of building products – known as embodied carbon. After many years of efforts across the industry, embodied carbon as an issue is finally emerging into the mainstream. We see this in the debate of how we should handle our existing buildings, with the carbon cost of the proposed demolition of M&S on London’s Oxford Street grabbing national headlines, in local planning policy, with the London Plan including a requirement for wholelife carbon assessments, and in the Houses of Parliament where the ‘Part Z’ for embodied carbon recently came forward. While excellent progress is being made, there remain outstanding challenges. For the timber industry this is seen in the debate on how to measure the impact of carbon sequestered by wood products. With the many differing
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opinions, it has sometimes been difficult to fully communicate the benefits which timber and timber building systems bring to reducing embodied carbon. Measuring the benefits of timber and carbon In our new technical paper ‘Assessing the carbon-related impacts and benefits of timber in construction products and buildings’ we set out to solve this problem by communicating a clear process for accounting for carbon in timber buildings and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in accordance with the latest European Standards (EN 15978 and EN 15804+A2) and RICS Professional Statement on Whole Life Carbon Assessment in the built environment. This is important. As with any other core part of a business, from finance
