The planning chart / infographic below was produced as part of the ConstructCO2 support tools to enable projects to reduce construction phase carbon emissions. It provides a visual check box for use at project planning stage as to what actions, initiatives and approaches will be taken to reduce carbon, and to achieve the project carbon target.
Further information on the ConstructCO2 site
Managing construction carbon is an essential part of successful project management.
If you are not already using constructco2, here is our latest update release for the ConstructCO2 carbon monitoring toolkit…
As part of the annual review of the ConstructCO2 toolkit’s conversion factors we have updated the Modes of Transport to match those published this year by DEFRA and the Carbon Trust. These updates ensure that we are in line with industry standards and reflect the emission improvements declared by DEFRA every year.
We are aware that many users are now using ConstructCO2 carbon footprint in connection with ISO 14001, Carbon Trust Standard, ISO 9001 and other standards. You may be interested to know that we offer an independent audit and verification service to verify the accuracy of your data within ConstructCO2. Please do get in touch to discuss
We are also aware that some early adopters may not be fully using some of the more recent additions and improvements to the toolkit, therefore we will be running webinar refresher sessions in the autumn. More news and dates soon.
To assist in publicly demonstrating your commitment in measuring and reducing your projects carbon footprint we have developed:
A Reducing Carbon Action Planning Infographic to assist strategic and operational carbon reduction:
Project Carbon Performance Posters to communicate carbon progress and engagement with those on site:
and ConstructCO2 Banners, with QR codes allowing progress checks on performance:
We are very keen to hear your improvement suggestions to incorporate, or you have any queries please don’t hesitate to contact us. Also if you are not currently using ConstructCO2 but would like a free trial just ask!
For PQQ responses to have chance of success they need to address the requirements and aspirations of the client and project.
They also need to differentiate from the competition. So when a client organisation presents on how to differentiate at bid stage, you should be on to a winner.
But of course it’s an ever iterative game, and you will need to be better than those who also hear the customers tips for bidding.
At last weeks CSkills Forum in Salford, Urban Vision Partnership presented what they look to as differentiators when marking and selecting PQQ’s, either as direct bids, as part of a consortia or within a supply chain. Urban Vision’s overall remit is to manage, protect, maintain and enhance development within the city.
Key Differentiating Factors:
– Creation of community benefit
– Workforce development
– Added value and innovation
– Environmental performance, eg 14001 and CO2 monitoring
– Health and Safety practices, eg 18001
– An IMS (Integrated Management System) approach to quality, sustainability and safety
How many of these can you honestly tick as being well established, or well in development, within your organisation, to articulate within bids?
Many of these have been part of the construction business improvement agenda for many years now, certainly since Egans Rethinking Construction back in 1998, whilst others are relatively new as Methods of Modern Construction Management.
Through fairsnape we can help with advice or support in these areas, in practice or in bid articulation. Why not have a conversation? You can follow and join me on twitter @fairsnape, subscribe to or share this blog post, or get in touch.
Why monitor construction carbons: Shortly after writing a comment to a linkedin group on the importance of measuring and understanding construction carbons, through tools such as ConstructCO2, indications of increased focus on carbon performance popped up in a tweet (via Julie Urlaub @TaigaCompany ) regarding an Environmental Leader post that referenced Carbon Trust Report: Half of Multinationals to Choose Suppliers Based on CO2 Emissions
According to the study, a full half of multinational companies plan to select suppliers based on carbon performance, and that 29% of suppliers are likely to lose their places on green supply chains if they do not have adequate performance records on carbon.
In the U.K., 56% of multinationals said that in the future they expect to drop suppliers based upon low carbon performance, with 74% of the U.K. respondents quoting shareholder pressure as a key driver for them in tackling carbon emissions.
And, although the report has a focus on multinationals, it is not irrelevant to the built environment
Next month Marshalls Plc, a supplier of hard landscaping, will be hosting a United Nations Global Compact Supplier event to educate first-tier suppliers on its approach to environmental issues.
As I posted to the Think Zero group on Linkedin, I still have to hear a good reason why we should not be measuring construction carbons. Are you tracking your carbon performance – do you have the evidence?
ConstructCO2, our construction carbon calculator now measures ‘zero’ carbon travel to and from job sites.
Recording and increasing the travel from managers, visitors and operatives who get to site under their own steam (eg walking and cycling) or via car sharing is an important element in reducing construction impact on the environment, travel miles and the associated carbon emissions
It is also an important KPI that measures the projects performance against any green travel or car share plans.
The Zero travel KPI is expressed as a percentage of all travel or can be broken down to percentage of zero carbon travel for managers, visitors or operatives.
It is very very early days as yet, but it looks as through zero carbon travel is below 1% of all people travel. More later when we have more data.
So are we prepared yet for the tranistion to a low carbon economy in the built environment?
Accouncements this week from the UK Government regarding targets for carbon reduction will affect all aspects of energy use, conservation and management. With the built environment contributing to 40% of CO2 emissions the imapct on design, material production, tranport construction and more will be very significant.
Facilities Management and the way we use buildings will most likely be the sector of the built environment to be profoundly affected. Whether the FM sector can rise to the occasion is another question, and one now being debated in FM forums, circles and events. See my thoughts on CSR Wire Talkback
Indications from the recent Facilities Show in Birmingham (my own questioning of the exhibitors) suggests carbon measurement is just not on many FM providers agenda as yet
Can we be ready for such a dramatic tranistion, which as Derek Deighton explained is a 13 times reduction – a huge undertaking. And its not as if we havent had time to prepare in the last decade or so. Indeed as John Elkington highlighted ‘since Brundtland in 1987 we are still jollying along and still delighting in green or sustainable innovations’
What lies ahead in relation to the tranistion for businesses to a low carbon economy has been wonderfully summed up and explained in the May edition of the Director in the Green Path to Growth article by Alison Coleman:
The UK has pledged to make deep cuts in carbon emissions by 2050. But as new sustainability rules bite, what are the duties of businesses? …
Britain is committed to massive carbon cuts, and whether businesses subscribe to green principles or not, they will be expected to play a key role. The Climate Change Act 2008 set a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, which assumes energy efficiency savings of around two per cent per annum for the next 40 years. That’s a big ask.
Although many companies are implementing green operating policies and achieving environmental management standards, the business contribution to the target is being driven by myriad carbon-related sustainability rules. Yet many organisations have yet to understand the cost of compliance
and as to the cost of carbon? …
Tony Rooke, sustainability practice leader at IT services provider Logica, says: “What was a carrot will now become a stick, and with the carbon price set at £12 per tonne of carbon emitted, it could add up to eight per cent to an organisation’s energy costs. What it will do is encourage them to minimise that impact by monitoring energy consumption more closely, and redoubling their efforts to reduce it and avoid waste.
it of course makes good sense:
Alan McGill, a partner in the environmental reporting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Forget the green agenda and just apply the commercial principles. There are lots of companies looking at operational opportunities to take carbon out and bring benefits to the business.”
People get ready, there’s a CO2 train a comin’ You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board” With apologies to Curtis Mayfield
I have often said the built environment is a fascinating and great sector to be involved with – and now as we realise the carbon train is a-coming and we see its time to get on board, the journey could get a lot more interesting!
Thoughts?
This blog has reported on numerous occasions (eg here and here) on the need to measure and improve carbon emissions from construction activities separately from that of the building itself or the facility in use. And the need for an easy, simple to use tool.
As noted many of the available applications for calculating carbons were linked dubiously to carbon offsetting schemes. Of note for use in construction were the Google Carbon tool (but not construction specific enough) and the Environment Agency tool (but is proving to be too detailed and cumbersome for most projects)
Measuring and improving carbons on site is increasingly important as more and more projects seek higher standards to BREEAM and Code for Sustainable Homes (and soon Non Dom Buildings). One recent project set ‘damages’ for the contractor not achieving the ‘management points’ (for waste, CO2 and considerate constructor standard) for CSH at £40k per point. (See the CSH Technical Manual for more on this)
Recently at EcoBuild Paul Morrell, Construction Tsar commented that focus on carbon emissions should be a number one site priority as it is measurable and addresses other areas of ‘waste’ in the industry
And yet the majority of contracts just do not know their project carbon footprint, whether its close to 1tonne or over 100tonne. We do not have a feel for the magnitude of emissions, or indeed what 1kg of CO2 actually looks like.
So it is good news to see the release of ConstructCO2, developed through Evolution-ip, by construction people for construction use.
ConstructCO2 is a simple carbon calculator based on the premise of keeping it simple and easy to use on site. It makes use of existing site approaches for data collection (induction sheets, daily log-ins, plant sheets, utility invoices etc). Carbon emissions through transport are calculated through use of google mapping API .
Construction (people) travel miles are recorded for management, operatives and visitors. (With a dispersed project management team you will be surprised at the carbon footprint of a project site meeting and probably think of alternative arrangements) Material transport miles are derived from delivery notes or goods received sheets.
Where the power of ConstructCO2 lies however is in its reporting. Construction carbons can be measured in terms of co2/£project value, co2/dwelling, c02/m2, co2/bed or other, enabling benchmarking with other projects and generically through KPI’s such as those from Construction Excellence.
But simply knowing the project footprint, the construction company’s total project footprint, and where the biggest areas for carbon emission are enables action for real improvement.
ConstructCO2 is currently being used by a number of different projects in what I guess would be called a beta stage. Current projects include a large new build hotel project, a small industrial refurb project, school extension and an architect’s office.
Currently the use of ConstructCO2 as a tool is free, with a (currently optional) fee based support and training package to help contractors understand carbon issues, carbon standards requirements, measuring, benchmarking and improving carbon footprints. So it makes sense to take the opportunity now, measure and understand the carbon footprint of one of your projects. At the moment sign up is through request via email contacts on the ConstructCO2 front page
Future developments include the option for live energy feeds from site power meters to ConstructCO2 and live exporting from ConstructCO2 to Google and Pachube for example.
ConstructCO2 is on twitter at @constructco2 and has a ning forum in development for discussion and benchmarking of project carbon issues.
Note: As an associate with Evolution-ip, I have been involved in the ConstructCO2 concept development and testing. Evolution-IP is a be2camp partner, presenting at and sponsoring be2camp un-conference events.
For the first time the UK’s leading business group has set out its vision for a low-carbon economy in a series of climate change roadmaps. The roadmaps, called ‘Going the Distance’, set out a timetable of action to ensure carbon emissions targets are met, and the measures that will be needed to put the UK in pole position in the development of low-carbon technologies.
Comment: the roadmap could appear to be protecting industry (only a 6% reduction) and focuses heavily on nuclear and carbon capture (but not until 2013), sees the Severn Barrage as the way forward and wants a government led, rather than industry led initiative. (what happened to market led economies?)
CBI are proposing the following contributions per sector from 2006
Industry 6%
Buildings 43%
Transport 29%
Energy 39%
(not sure how much the roadmap avoids double counting, particularly with energy reductions)
In the buildings roadmap the CBI wants to see:
• Smart meters fitted in homes and businesses so users can see how much power they are using.
• Incentives to encourage consumers to buy more efficient washing machines, fridges and freezers.
• Loft insulation installed in three million homes.
• Agreement on a realistic definition of ‘zero-carbon’ for new homes and business premises.
Download: Going the distance: the low-carbon buildings roadmap
Forty percent of the UK’s carbon emissions come from energy consumed in buildings.1 To meet the UK’s 2020 CO₂ target, the CBI believes carbon savings of 43MtCO₂ should come from buildings, equivalent to a 20%reduction from 2006 levels.
Nearly two thirds of these savings can come from energy efficiency measures that will save money as well as carbon, while remaining savings will need to come from renewable and low carbon heat and micro-generation and zero-carbon new buildings. Progress made in decarbonising the UK’s electricity supply will also drive emissions reduction
Related:
Barratt Developments has unveiled what it calls the first zero-carbon house developed by a volume housebuilder, built at the Buildings Research Establishment in Watford, packed with the latest technology, including solar panels, rainwater harvesting and an air source heat pump.
Its new kind of concrete walls and floors, combined with super insulation and triple-glazed windows, means its heat requirement will be minimal as it is airtight. Fresh air is brought into the building through a heat exchanger, which extracts the heat from outgoing stale air and puts it back into the house.
Mark Clare, chief executive of Barratt, said it would not be easy to reduce the cost of the prototype to commercial levels but he was confident it could be done. The important thing, he added, was to build houses that people would buy.
The public and builders still need to be convinced, according to the NHBC Foundation report, and it would seem todays kids – who will buy the homes – Kids dream homes – whose dream homes aren’t high on eco features.
The UK Green Building Council released a report this week defining what a zero-carbon house should be in practice. This is likely to form the basis of the legislation that the government is soon going to work on.
Housebuilders had been unhappy at the costs of going zero carbon and had wanted to be able to invest in off-site renewable energy such as wind turbines that would be cheaper for them. But the government is likely to endorse the GBC proposals that a zero-carbon house should produce almost all its energy on site or very near by in, say, a communal heat and power system.
Barratt plans rolling out its zero-carbon homes on the site of Hanham Hall hospital near Bristol. It will build 200 of them, a third of which will be affordable to lower-income buyers. All will be code level six and will completed in 2011, five years ahead of the deadline.
Green, innovative and zero carbon project development on our doorstep in Preston, Lancs, !
The RIBA have recently awarded a zero carbon design as the visitor center at the new Brockholes Wetland and Woodland Nature Reserve in Preston, to regenerate a former quarry site into a major visitor attraction.
The project called “A Floating World”, consists of zero-carbon floating buildings (the name coming from the fact that the zero-carbon buildings will be built on an island of floating pontoons)
Adam Khan Architects, won the RIBA design competition to work on the ‘jewel in the crown’ of Britain’s largest eco-regeneration scheme. The project is zero-carbon in both use and production, with materials of low embodied energy – thatch, willow, timber, with off-site prefabrication and on-site energy generation and waste treatment.
Floating world will feature cafe, shops, gallery, education areas and meeting rooms and is part of the £59 million Newlands Scheme, a project that will turn 900 hectares to community woodland and green space.
On announcement of the winner, Peter White, Head of Infrastructure & Development at the Northwest Regional Development Agency said:
“This site has the potential to become an important visitor attraction for the region, building on its rich natural assets and impressive biodiversity. The Agency is supporting its development through Newlands, a wide reaching scheme that aims to reclaim brownfield land and transform it into thriving community open spaces, and has so far invested £800,000 in Brockholes. The chosen design will not only create an inspirational open space for the local community to enjoy but will also enhance a key gateway into Lancashire and attract further investment into the area. We look forward to working with our partners to progress these plans.”
More on this as the project develops …
Fairsnape 