NetZero/Embodied Carbon Metrics – a contractual deliverable?
NetZero/Embodied Carbon Metrics – a contractual deliverable?
by 3PM
Post lockdown, the industry is becoming more conscious of its environmental impact and is grasping the challenges of achieving NetZero.
Recently a lot of discussion has taken place regarding engineered solutions and the challenges of quantifying embodied carbon, given as yet the sector has not settled on an appropriate methodology.
Recent conversations have covered the ability and desire to quantify embodied carbon, as either a project KPI for early stage options evaluation, or as a contracted hard metric. The Enterprise Centre, our innovative scheme delivered for University of East Anglia tackled these challenges head on, and since then we have consolidated our knowledge and the approach that we now employ on our schemes in support of the 3PM NetZero route map.
Our top success factors include:
- Firstly, above all else you need a desire to achieve, practiced by a strong & principled lead.
- Secondly, you need a defined methodology, for example ECCOlab gets our vote as we know the output has been validated.
- A collaborative and open approach by the whole team to raise the bar; accepted norms of process or approach need re-evaluation; tweaking is not enough!
- A way of monitoring team efforts, perception based to align the teams focus & intent.
- Defined quantitative metrics and established evaluation criteria to maintain the focus, i.e. BREEAM Outstanding, WELL etc.
- Balance the science with the common sense, TM54 may be a great methodology but it’s a reactive tool and planned vs actual alignment is not always proven. Energy must be balanced with comfort. Appropriate material selection is the key, especially as some 70% of emissions are driven by the frame & envelope.
- Innovation is not a dirty word, embrace challenge, stretch the boundaries, don’t accept the first answers.
- Define the risks and seek clear mitigation, document the intent.
It is clear that this is an area of expertise that needs to evolve rapidly in a post COVID-19 world. We cannot arrive at a new normal by doing the same things. 3PM are proud to sign up to #ProjectManagersDeclare and have the proven expertise to show just how the above list can be achieved.