The Embodied Carbon in Construction in the West Midlands

Marco Angelini George Nawar

December 2008

1.

Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Climate Change: the most prominent environmental issue .............................. 1 1.2 Impact of building material and construction on climate change in the UK ...... 3 1.3 The Climate Policies: Integrated Assessment Framework ............................... 3 1.4 The Embodied Carbon in Construction ............................................................ 4 1.5 Targets for carbon reductions .......................................................................... 7

1.5.1 1.5.2 1.5.3

European Directive in carbon reduction.......................................................................................... 7 UK target reduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 Birmingham City Council targets ..................................................................................................... 9

2.

Project Aims and Methodology ................................................................... 11 2.1 Project Collaborators (WMCCE & BCP) ........................................................ 11 2.2 Project Aims................................................................................................... 12 2.3 Methodology .................................................................................................. 13

3.
3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3

Measuring the Embodied Carbon ............................................................... 15 3.1 Survey of available tools ................................................................................ 15
Environment Agency programme ................................................................................................. 15 ECCM tool (Europe's leading centre of expertise in carbon management) ................................... 16 Wrap tool (The Waste & Resources Action Programme) .............................................................. 17

3.2 Selecting the most appropriate tool ............................................................... 19 3.3 Embodied Carbon Information and Sources .................................................. 20 4.
4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.3.1 4.1.3.2

Estimating the carbon footprint in three case studies .............................. 22 4.1 GF Tomlinson case study .............................................................................. 22
GF Tomlinson Group: Company profile ......................................................................................... 22 Colebourne primary school case study: construction site description .......................................... 23 Research: data input - output, impact, results and consideration ................................................. 25 Data Input - Output ....................................................................................................................... 25 Results and Considerations ............................................................................................................ 26

4.2 Thomas Vale case study ............................................................................... 30

4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.3.1 4.2.3.2 Thomas Vale Group: Company profile........................................................................................... 30 Sutton New Road Offices, Erdington: construction site description .............................................. 31 Research: data input - output, impact, results and consideration ................................................. 32 Data Input - Output ....................................................................................................................... 32 Results and Considerations ............................................................................................................ 33

4.3 Wates case study .......................................................................................... 36

4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.3.1 4.3.3.2 Wates Group: Company profile ..................................................................................................... 36 Case study description .................................................................................................................. 37 Research: data input - output, impact, results and consideration ................................................. 39 Data input - output ........................................................................................................................ 39 Results and Considerations ............................................................................................................ 40

4.4 Evaluation of Results ..................................................................................... 41

4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 Problems and difficulties in tool used and the data collection ...................................................... 41 Review of methodologies used ..................................................................................................... 42 Result Consideration and recommendations ................................................................................ 44

5.

Conclusion .................................................................................................... 46 5.1 Reducing problems and Improving on advantages ........................................ 46 5.2 Recommended further research: Data base and Software development ...... 47

6.

References .................................................................................................... 51

1. Introduction
1.1 Climate Change: the most prominent environmental issue
Climate refers to the average weather experienced in a region over a long period, typically at least 30 years
(12)

. This includes temperature, wind and rainfall

patterns. The climate of the Earth is not static, and has changed many times in the past in response to a variety of natural causes. The United Nations define the term climate change with reference only to changes in climate which can be attributed to human activity (UNFCCC). Recent observed changes in global climate are likely to be due to a combination of both natural and human causes. The Earth's climate varies naturally as a result of interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, changes in the Earth's orbit, fluctuations in energy received from the sun and volcanic eruptions. The main human influence on global climate is likely to be emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. At present, about 6.5 billion tonnes of CO2 is emitted globally each year, mostly through burning of fossil fuel for energy. The Earth is kept warm by the greenhouse effect. Certain gases in the atmosphere (so-called greenhouse gases) absorb energy that is radiated from the Earths surface, and so warm the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon without which life on Earth as we know it would not be possible, as the Earth could be around 30C cooler. However, our modern lifestyles have resulted in us releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, enhancing the greenhouse effect and so pushing up temperatures globally (2). Human activities generate several different greenhouse gases that contribute to climatic change. On earth, the most abundant greenhouse gases are, in order of relative abundance: water, vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone CFCs. Analyzing the combination of the strength of the greenhouse effect of the gas and its abundance shows that the most important greenhouse gases are: water vapour (which causes about 36-70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth), carbon dioxide (which causes 9-26%), methane (which causes 4-9%) and ozone (which causes 3-7%).

The currently observed impacts of climate change represent the reaction of the climate system to the green-house gas emissions of the past two centuries as shown in figure 1. Because of the inertia of the climate system, the impacts will not become noticeable until the coming decades and consequently the climate of the Earth will presumably continue to heat up for many centuries to come
(1)

Figure 1: Global average Temperature (UK Climate Impacts, 5 (2) November 2008)

When referring to the post-industrial era, scientists generally use the term climate change in the way defined by The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The world is responding to this threat by taking global action to limit the emission of GHGs into the atmosphere. In 1997, the UNFCCC adopted the Kyoto Protocol, establishing legally binding targets for the developed countries that ratified the protocol. It aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an overall 5% below 1990 levels during the period between 2008 and 2012
(4)

1.2

Impact of building material and construction on climate change in the UK

Buildings generally are responsible for over a quarter of environmental

impacts in terms of: 30 % of the raw materials used, 42 % of the energy, 25% of water used, 12% of land use, 40% of atmospheric emissions, 20% of water effluents, 25% of solid waste and 13% of other releases. If we look at the broader construction including bridges, roads and so forth, materials account for upwards of 70% of our total materials flow globally. Much of our total construction activity is associated with residential development. Materials used in house construction impact on almost every aspect of sustainability including: Raw-resource extraction impacts on the physical environment for example cutting down tropical forests for window or flooring timbers, or chemical spills from poorly managed mines for metal, paint or ceramic products; Non- renewable resource depletion, including oil, and resource quality degradation, such as pollution of water; Greenhouse gas emissions from energy production in all stages of material manufacture and use; Waste leading to landfill burdens, including toxic waste. Looking at the UK, the construction activity is responsible for nearly a third of all industry-related pollution. Construction and demolition waste alone represent 19% of total UK waste. Too many buildings are environmentally inefficient and do not make best use of limited resources such as energy and water. The energy used in constructing, occupying and operating buildings is responsible for approximately 50% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK (9).

1.3

The Climate Policies: Integrated Assessment Framework

The climate change issue is part of the larger challenge of sustainable development. As a result, climate policies can be more effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies designed to make national and regional development

paths. The impact of climate variability and changes, climate policy responses, and associated socio-economic development will affect the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development. Conversely, the pursuit of sustainable goals will in turn affect the opportunities for, and success of, climate policies. In particular, the socioeconomic and technological characteristics of different development paths will strongly affect emissions, the rate and magnitude of climate change, climate change impacts, the capability to adapt, and the capacity to mitigate as illustrated in figure 2.

Figure 2: Climate change - an integrated framework. Schematic and simplified representation of an integrated assessment framework for considering anthropogenic climate change. Source: (IPCC Intergovernamental Panel on Climate, September 2001)

1.4

The Embodied Carbon in Construction

Life-cycle assessment is a production-based analytical tool used to undertake

embodied energy and carbon analysis. It includes the systematic evaluation of the environmental aspects of a product or service through all stages of its life-cycle, from extraction, processing, manufacture, transport and distribution, use, re-use, maintenance, recycling and final disposal. The concept of Embodied Carbon is not easy to understand and in order to do that we need to relate it to Embodied Energy as Carbon is often a by-product of the use of energy.

Embodied energy is the total energy consumed during the whole life of a product. Ideally the boundaries would be set from the extraction of row materials (inc fuels) to the end of the products lifetime (including energy from: manufacturing, transport, energy to manufacture capital equipment, heating & lighting of factory ...etc), this definition is known as a Cradle to Grave. There are two forms of embodied energy in construction as illustrated in figure 3: A. Initial embodied energy: represents the non-renewable energy consumed in the acquisition of raw materials, their processing, manufacturing, transportation to site, and construction. This has two components: Direct energy the energy used to transport building products to the site, and then to construct the building; Indirect energy is the energy used to acquire, process, manufacture the materials and related transports. B. Recurring embodied energy: represents the non-renewable energy consumed to maintain, repair, restore, refurbish or replace materials, components or systems during the optional life of the building.

Figure 3: Embodied Energy Ladder.

In embodied carbon however, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) would apply only to specific stages of the full life-cycle, not covering emissions generated during the use and

final disposal stages. It is only limited to an assessment of carbon or Green House Gasses (GHG) emissions, ignoring other aspects of environmental damage. The Carbon Trust (2006) developed a carbon LCA methodology to assess the carbon footprint of different products by analyzing the carbon emissions generated by the corresponding energy use across the supply chain. In particular the embodied carbon in the life cycle of a building is in the form of CO2 emitted during the manufacture of materials, their transport and assembly on site, its maintenance and replacement, disassembly and decomposition. It consists of 5 main parts as summarised these below and illustrated in figure 4: 1. Design/Project Management carbon (PMc) included in 2 & 3 Carbon created for everything that happens off site from project concept to completion. This includes travel, administration, all personnel involved in the project: designers, architects, contractors, suppliers and the client.... 2. Material Embodied carbon (Ec) The amount of carbon within the materials and the constructions of the building: product sourcing, extraction, refining, processing, manufacture and transportation. 3. Construction carbon (Cc) The amount of carbon created through the building process: site development, construction, installation, site equipment, site labour, material delivery, energy used on site. 4. Operating / Running / In-use-carbon (Rc) The amount of carbon created by the building over the complete lifespan looking at each material and product: cleaning, repairs, renovation, refurbishment,

redecoration, maintenance. 5. Deconstruction carbon (Dc) The amount of carbon created at the end of the building lifespan looking at removing each material and product.

Figure 4: Embodied Carbon Ladder.

1.5

Targets for carbon reductions

1.5.1 European Directive in carbon reduction The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines the international response to climate change. It contains legally binding emission targets for Annex I (developed) countries during the post-2000 period. The European Community signed the Kyoto Protocol on 29th April 1998. Under the Protocol, the 15 European states had been assigned a Greenhouse Gases (GHG) reduction target of 8% on average over 2008-2012. The six gases are to be combined in a "basket", with reductions in individual gases translated into "CO2 equivalents" that are then added up to produce a single figure. In particular, each countrys emissions target must be achieved during the period 2008-2012. It will be calculated as an average over the five years. "Demonstrable progress" towards meeting the target must be made by 2005. Cuts in the three most important gases - carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20) - will be measured against a base year of 1990 (with exceptions for some countries with economies in transition). Cuts in three long-lived industrial gases - hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), per fluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) can be measured against either a 1990 or 1995 baseline (7).

CO2 accounts for about 80% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from industrialised countries. For this reasons, carbon emission is probably the most important issue that has to be actively faced in the near future (11). A Burden Sharing Agreement was made in EU as outlined in table 1 below.
Table 1: GHG reduction target under the European Burden Sharing Agreement (1990* - 2008/12)
Austria Belgium Denmark Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Portugal Spain Sweden United Kingdom -13.0 % -7.5 % -21.0 % 0.0 % 0.0 % -21.0 % +25.0 % +13.0 % -6.5 % -28.0 % -6.0 % +27.0 % +15.0 % +4.0 % -12.5 %

* The base year for the fluorinated greenhouse gases can be chosen as either 1990 or 1995. The base year for all other greenhouse gases is 1990.

1.5.2 UK target reduction The UK Government's Energy White Paper (2003) sets an aspiration for the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 60% and create a low carbon economy by 2050, accepting the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) of a need to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions. In the near term, agreements following the Kyoto Protocol require the UK to attain a greenhouse gas emission reduction of 12.5% on average in 2008-2012 compared to 1990 levels. In addition, the UK Government has set its own goal for CO 2 emission reduction to 20% below the 1990 level by 2010.

The existing UK Climate Change Programme combines both regulatory and obligatory measures with fiscal strategy measures to place the UK on a path to reduce carbon emissions to 60% by 2050 through a combination of energy efficiency in the short term and renewables in the long term. The Government published a review of the UK Climate Change Programme in 2006 which set this target. This was followed in July 2006 by the publication of the Governments Energy Review, a major review of progress in achieving the following UKs four long term goals for energy policy (7): To put the UK on a path to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 80% by 2050, with real progress by 2020; To maintain reliable energy supplies; To promote competitive markets in the UK and beyond, helping to raise the rate of sustainable economic growth and to improve our productivity; To ensure that every home is adequately and affordably heated.

1.5.3 Birmingham City Council targets Birminghams Local Area Agreement (LAA) is the document that covers the climate change issue in the West Midlands. The new LAA is an agreement between central government and Birmingham - its people, communities and partners in the public, private, community, voluntary and faith sectors. It represents a three-year programme to transform the city and to deliver the first steps of Birmingham 2026: the new Sustainable Community Strategy
(13)

Birmingham has already established its ambition to be a global leader in tackling climate change by reducing CO2 emissions by at least 60% by 2026 and will be launching its strategy. Birmingham City Council targets of reducing CO2 emissions are summarized as follows: 60% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2026; 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2010; procure 15% of its energy use from renewable energy by 2010;

10

eliminate fuel poverty in vulnerable households by 2010 and in all householders by 2016.

By exceeding national targets Birmingham will use its expertise, including its science city status, the University of Birminghams National Energy Technology Institute and East Birmingham and North Solihull regeneration zone to develop innovative solutions creating and attracting new businesses and jobs (12). However without further actions Birminghams emissions are set to rise from 6.8 to 8 million tonnes per annum by 2026 (13). In fact, Birmingham people consume almost three times their fair share of the Earth's resources, in common with many cities in developed countries. In 2005 Birmingham produced 6,325 kg of CO2 per person. Carbon dioxide is produced by businesses (47%), households (35%) and road transport (18%) and action is needed in each of these areas in order to meet the set target (10).

11

2. Project Aims and Methodology

2.1 Project Collaborators (WMCCE & BCP)
The Birmingham Construction Partnership (BCP) was launched in 2004 to deliver Birmingham City Councils 500 million-plus capital business programme through to 2009. Led by Urban Design, the councils specialist building design, procurement and maintenance consultancy service, BCP brings together the contractors, GF Tomlinson Birmingham Ltd, Thomas Vale Construction plc and Wates Group. BCP delivers every council building project over 100.000, the Decent home standard program, as well as upgrading buildings to DDA standards. BCP is now the primary means of delivering such works. The BCP allow the council to source the best quality construction for the development of the local area. The long term relationship allows all the parties on a project to be involved from the earliest stage as the first tier of the councils supply chain. In turn, the second tier is made up of 61 selected companies from whom this three contractors source specialist service forming a fully integrated supply chain, unique to a framework of this size in the UK. Since the BCP was launched 307 projects worth some 489 million have been allocated to the partners, for service that include housing, offices leisure, sport, school and social care. The work of the partnership continues to be recognized and has received a number of prestigious awards, including in 2007, the national award for Integration and Collaborative

working in the Construction Excellence Award. The latter is awarded to an organisation which is changing the way the UK construction industry works. The BCP has been so successful that Birmingham City Council has decided to extend the initial partnership by two years until 2011. One of the early performance drivers for the partnership was to ensure the citys aspirations towards a more suitable strategy were met. This vision was enhanced in

12

2007 when the partnership formed the BCP Sustainability Working Group to ensure a consistent approach in moving the agenda forward. Working collaboratively, this core group addressed the challenges of sustainable development and social responsibility. A number of common principles are now firmly embedded throughout the framework and action programmes to achieve sustainable prosperity. Over the past two years, supply chain allocation by value has exceeded 45 million and with the integration of environmental, social, human and economic goals in policies and activities combined, the BCP was able to enhance the sustainability agenda in a number of key areas: The development of opportunities to secure local employment, use of local supply chain contractors to develop training opportunities and enhanced workforce profiles for previously under represented groups in the community. The impact of sustainability on projects at design stage. Consideration of whole life costs whilst maintaining conservation and ecological integrity. Waste management. Overcoming financial barriers to sustainability.

2.2 Project Aims

The members of Birmingham Construction Partnership have started to measure the embodied carbon content of materials and energy used in delivering projects within the partnership. The intention of this project is to start to produce accurate data so benchmarks can be established with a view to setting targets for reduction. These targets are to be clearly defined prior to the project commencement in order to have a clear purpose in every stage of the project. The aims are summarized as below: Studying and understanding the issue; Finding a reliable and easy methodology to measure embodied carbon in the building construction stage; Producing embodied carbon data and benchmarks for three case studies;

13

Providing recommendations on reduction of embodied carbon in future constructions.

The first stage of the project was addressed by studying the available embodied carbon literature because of the high complexity and the newness of this field, as no similar project was undertaken before. This is the first time that a construction companies were directly involved in embodied carbon measurement. Finding reliable and easy methodology for measuring embodied carbon and starting to produce benchmarks was one of the main targets which helped to introduce the issue to the supply chain and to take further technical decisions in partnership. The BCP is ideally placed to lead this task because of their capacity to influence their integrated supply chain. Developing further recommendations to reduce carbon footprint will provide more reliable results compared to previous targets. This result will be useful for supporting further research.

2.3 Methodology
This project is a unique survey of embodied carbon in construction that involves directly three contractors. The project schedule was prepared as shown in table 2 in order to achieve the targets outline in 2.2. The availability of carbon calculator tools was researched and the most appropriate tool for construction was selected. The information needed to calculate the embodied carbon of building materials were provided in terms of: carbon value per unit weight of material used. The direct involvement with construction activity provided the opportunity to deal directly with site managers, project managers, quantity surveyors and suppliers who were involved in the three building construction projects and with the persons who were most able to provide the information needed. For this reason the main part of the survey was based on three placements at GF Tomlinson, Thomas Vale and Wates. During that period, data was collected for all the case studies and was processed to reach the results and conclusions of this report. The first placement at GF Tomlinson took longer than the others to allow for an adaptation period and to find out an appropriate data collection methodology.

14

An interim report to outline and evaluate problems and difficulties encountered was presented to BCP on 28th November 2008. The final period was used for compilation and presentation of the final report.

Table 2: Embodied carbon project schedule

25/08/2008 01/09/2008 08/09/2008 15/09/2008 22/09/2008 29/09/2208 06/10/2008 13/10/2008 20/10/2008 27/10/2008 03/11/2008 10/11/2008 17/11/2008 24/11/2208 01/12/2008 08/12/2008

1.Work in WMCCE
(Climate change, The Embodied Carbon in Constructions, Targets for carbon reductions, Project Aims and Methodology, Measure the Embodied Carbon, Survey of available tools)

2.Placement with GF Tomlinson

(Understand data and methodology, case study description, Research data input - output, impact, results and consideration)

3.Placement with Thomas Vales

(Case study description, Research data input - output, impact, results and consideration)

4. Placement with Wates

(Case study description, Research data input - output, impact, results and consideration)

5. Interim Report
(Problems and difficulties in tools used, Prepare first draft, Consultant with BCP and feedback)

6. Prepare Final Report

(Software Trials Feedback and updates Conclusion and recommendation)

7. Presentation of final report

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3. Measuring the Embodied Carbon

3.1 Survey of available tools

A web research was carried out to identify available tools. Three suitable programmes were identified to determine their advantages and disadvantages in order to select the most appropriated tool for this survey. The programmes were developed by the Environment Agency, ECCM (Europe's leading centre of expertise in carbon management) and Wrap (The Waste & Resources Action Programme). The three programmes are discussed below.

3.1.1 Environment Agency programme The Environment Agency has produced an online carbon calculator to measure the impact of construction materials. Working with Jacobs Consultants, the EA has created an excel spreadsheet which calculates the embodied carbon dioxide of materials and the CO2 emissions associated with their transportation. In particular the tool helps to estimate the CO2 in the raw materials used, direct emissions from personal travel by employees, transportation of building materials and emissions from site activities such as earthworks and excavation to allow comparison of waste management options. It also suggests ways to find potential carbon savings during the planning and design process and can be used to estimate carbon footprint of a completed project. As shown in figure 5, the tool contains the carbon value for material which is taken from: Hammond G & Jones C (2006) Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) Version 1.5 Beta (Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath). This last is a work realized from Bath University which contains the values of embodied energy & carbon coefficients. The data was collected from secondary resources (books, reports, conference papers, web searches...etc). To aid in the selection of best coefficients in the ICE-Database that stored relevant information from the literature (i.e. Country of data, year, boundaries, details of the report, specific comments...etc).

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Figure 5: Extract of Environment Agency spreadsheet. Source: Environmental Agency tool

In particular the tool bases the calculation on four spreadsheets: 1. Construction input: in this section all quantities and transport values for all material are entered. It also includes the waste removal, plant emissions and portakabin impacts; 2. Personnel Travel Input: there are three ways of calculating emissions from Personnel Travel, depending on the availability of the data (if the distance and vehicles used are known); 3. Data: this sheet allows users to override the default values of the tool, where they have more accurate information; 4. Report: this section summarizes the total result and helps the user to understand where to find significant carbon savings.

3.1.2 ECCM tool (Europe's leading centre of expertise in carbon management) The Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM) has developed an easy-touse Building Materials Carbon Calculator, which analyses the embodied CO2 in the materials used in a building. The tool is the first of its kind and it helps decision makers to select the best material to minimise the carbon footprint in a building. The calculator helps clients, architects, builders and developers to gain an understanding of the environmental impact of their projects at the concept stage. The tool is a

17

simple to use and understand, designed to clear the haze surrounding calculating the carbon in building materials. Figure 6 shows how the building elements are compared within the tool. This includes foundations, external walls, roofs, cladding, floors, insulations, internal walls, windows and doors. This division simplifies the data entery because it represents the main elements of a building, some of which are included in the bill of quantities.

Figure 6: Extract of ECCM carbon calculator. Source: ECCM tool

The Carbon Calculator provides a reading of the embodied CO2 in each of the building elements. Once quantities for all the project elements have been input, an overall indication of the carbon footprint of the building is provided. The software also encourages users to reconsider and compare the materials they select in order to reduce a buildings carbon footprint in the decision process.

3.1.3 Wrap tool (The Waste & Resources Action Programme) This is carbon dioxide (CO2) emission estimator tool for the aggregates used in construction. It is a Microsoft Excel based to help users decide upon construction techniques and aggregate supply alternatives on the basis of the associated CO2 emissions. The tool has been developed by TRL Limited, Costain and Taylor Woodrow Technology under a contract from WRAP on the basis of earlier models which only considered single area of construction. The tool is designed to assess the

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CO2 output resulting from four types of construction involving aggregates: bitumen bound, concrete, hydraulically bound and unbound. Figure 7 shows that for each construction type, the estimator tool allows up to three options to be compared. The options would be alternative mixtures with varying percentages of recycled and secondary aggregates (RSA) or techniques that the users know are fit for the same purpose.

Figure 7: Extract of WRAP: carbon calculator. Source: WRAP tool

The tool estimates CO2 emissions for each option and then compares the second two options with respect to the first, which used as a base case scenario to highlight any CO2 savings. Users can access the background calculations, where the CO2 from the different processes are estimated (e.g. embodied energies, transport, construction techniques) and the data used. This enables the users to: 1. Identify areas for major savings or contributing most to the overall emissions (e.g.: transport modes, transport distances, techniques including choice of binders, etc.) and quantify the corresponding savings in CO2 emissions; 2. Introduce data on their own equipment processes and materials.

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3.2

Selecting the most appropriate tool

In order to select the most appropriate calculator for this project, table 3

shows the advantages and disadvantages of each tool to clarify how the most appropriate tool has been selected.
Table 3: Advantages and disadvantages of the tools selected. Sources: Author

TOOLS
ECCM (Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management)

Advantages
Spreadsheet organization Simple and Intuitive to use Fast data entry

Disadvantages
Does not consider plant emission, travel and transport in general Can not be used for comparing similar material Fewer options Inflexible

Comments
Good to understand before the project start up but not reliable for benchmarking and accurate measurement

WRAP (Material Change for Better Environment)

Accurate tool Possibility to compare the impacts of different kind of aggregate Covers the impacts of the building and related activities Returns separate impact by material type

Considers only aggregates material and related transport Not intuitive and difficult to use Not intuitive and difficult to use Can not be used for comparative purpose

Good tool to compare between different type of aggregate and different material origins but it is more oriented to urban infrastructure (street ...) Good tool to calculate the total building embodied carbon by considering all related activities (benchmarks). This tool has been adopted for this project with modification.

Environment Agency Tool

Table 3 indicates that simplicity of the ECCM calculator is good to understand the carbon impact before the project starts but is not reliable for benchmarking and accurate measurement. The WRAP calculator is a good tool to compare between different types of aggregate and different material origins but is more oriented to urban infrastructure projects and is not intuitive to use. The Environment Agency calculator is considered a more suitable tool to estimate the total building embodied carbon. It considers all related activities and therefore is useful for benchmarking. Unfortunately this tool cannot be used for comparative purpose and is not intuitive to use. By comparing the characteristics of every tool with the project targets, the Environment Agency calculator was selected as the tool for this project.

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3.3

Embodied Carbon Information and Sources

In order to understand which data are needed for assessing the total embodied carbon in building construction, the information requested and sources are outline in every stage of the carbon ladder as shown in table 4. 1. Waste mass and mileage travelled from one place (extraction site, manufacture, whole sale, suppliers and project site) to the landfill; 2. Material mass and mileage travelled from one step site to the next one; 3. Carbon produced by transforming the material from one form to another; 4. Workers daily personal travel to reach the construction site; 5. Plant emissions in terms of diesel, biodiesel, electricity, gas and water use.
Table 4: "Embodied Carbon" Information and Sources.

This information was collected from the following sources: 1. Waste mass: the mass was provided from the project manager or from the suppliers whereas the distance to the landfill was estimated by using Google map;

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2. Material mass: the material mass was taken from the bill of quantities, the order sheets or from the project managers and suppliers information. Miles were estimated by using Google map; 3. Transformation process: this value was taken out from the Inventory of Carbon & Energy by University of BATH or from information provided from the suppliers. 4. Personal travel and plant emissions: were assessed by using the estimator present in the Environment Agency tool that calculates the carbon impact by entering the total size of the project.

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4. Estimating the carbon footprint in three case studies

4.1 GF Tomlinson case study

4.1.1 GF Tomlinson Group: Company profile G F Tomlinson Group provide a full and comprehensive construction and civil engineering service to valued Clients and Partners in both the public and private sectors. From offices in Derby, Birmingham and Worcester G F Tomlinson Group cover the majority of the Midlands and South Yorkshire, dealing with a multitude of differing types and sizes. Its activities regard not only the full range of building services but also design & build, joint venture and collaborative arrangements bespoke tailored to the specific needs of the project and Client. The Holding Company was established in 1980 to provide management services in terms of financial control, human resources, marketing and its Integrated Management System. The Group also sets operational standard that are common to all of the expanding Tomlinson divisions. The Building division of the Tomlinson construction group undertakes individual projects within a 75 mile radius of Derby. Working in the commercial, industrial, healthcare, education, leisure and retail sectors, the company provides a full range of construction services in new build, refurbishment, restoration and building maintenance. Together with a well established reputation in design and build, traditional and management contracts, over 65% of operations are now collaborative working arrangements/ partnerships with a range of key clients in the new build, building refurbishment and maintenance sectors. The civil engineering division has provided a comprehensive construction service throughout the Midlands for over 100 years. Current projects are as varied as they were during the formative years, covering roads, bridges, water treatment and sewerage schemes, land reclamation, industrial and commercial work and infrastructure projects for development schemes. The construction group's Birmingham-based division mirrors the activities and achievements of the Derby operation, working on projects ranging from several

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thousand pounds to several million pounds within the Birmingham and the West Midlands area. G F Tomlinson Group currently employ and train over 500 staff and tradesmen and regularly employ around 400 specialist subcontractors and suppliers at any one time. The majority of suppliers form part of their established supply chains, where performance is constantly audited through their Integrated Management System (IMS). Over this year, concerning the environmental issue, G F Tomlinson has the objective to improve their waste management, increase the amount of waste recycled and increase subcontractor awareness and commitment by fixing a target of recycled waste to 80% and an increase in subcontractor positive response to 10%.

4.1.2 Colebourne primary school case study: construction site description G F Tomlinson case study is a primary school which accommodates a total of 460 pupils. The site is located in the residential area of Stechford on the eastern side of Birmingham. The work relates to the construction of a new fully inclusive primary school on land behind the existing Colebourne School on Stechford Road, Stechford, Birmingham. In particular, the new school will accommodate existing pupils and those from Beaufort Special School in Stechford. Beaufort is a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties aged 4 to 11 years, currently in Coleshill Road, Stechford. Bringing the two schools together on a one site will enable pupils from the special school to experience mainstream school life, as indicated by Cllr Les Lawrence, cabinet member for education and life-long learning (Engineer, 21 November 2007). Parts of this works involve construction on land designated greenbelt and as such the environmental aspect takes specific heightened attention. The consultant architects are Birmingham Councils Urban Design. In line with councils existing partnership agreement, GF Tomlinson Building Limited will oversee the construction. The construction is taking advantage of the latest technology in off-site fabrication which will minimise disruption and reduce construction time. The project began in August 2007 and is expected to be concluded by August 2009. It is expected that the main building construction will end by February 2009 followed by demolition of existing building and refurbishment for further eight weeks.

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Figure 8: Colebourne primary school case study. Source: GF Tomlinson

The main build programme takes 65 weeks directly after the enabling period. The project involves the construction of a new two storey education facility comprising: classbases, corridors, administration areas, specialist hydrotherapy pool, plant rooms, two assembly halls, meals kitchen together with numerous specialist rooms servicing the requirements of Beaufort pupils. The main technical elements of the building include in: raft foundation, structural steel frame, hollowrib composite first floor, green roof, steel staircases, internal and external brickwork walls, sto-render or larch timber claddings. The building is characterised for an environmental regard (in line with DFES funding requirement) being designed with particular technical solution as a green roof (sedum onto sanding seam roof) and mechanical - electrical installations that provide natural ventilation and natural lighting. Further sustainability has been considered for energy, waste and water efficiency minimization during the build construction period. In support of this issue, expedients studies were taken, such as: materials are ordered in minimal quantities required and are stored in a way which prevents damage and unnecessary waste. Buyer consider the purchase of materials from suitable sources whenever possible and

25

measures are taken to minimise use of water using water minimising controls (ex: low flush toilets, cistern displacement device, sensor urinal flushing control etc), signs are provided to make persons conscious of environmental issues. Consideration has been taken for the importance of energy conservation and efficiency (ex: sign and sensor will be provided in order to reduce the unnecessary use of lighting / persons working on site are aware of an energy careful use of the equipment). Choosing this technical solution aims to achieve a very good BREEAM rating (BRE Environmental Assessment Method). During the placement period at Colebourne primary school (during the middle of September 2008), the building construction followed the activities schedule.

4.1.3 Research: data input - output, impact, results and consideration 4.1.3.1 Data Input - Output GF Tomlinson case study has been developed by collecting the data from the Bill of Quantities provided by the assigned quantity surveyor. In order to calculate the carbon footprint: the embodied carbon and the quantity used (in tonnes) of each element or material are required. In order to measure material used in tonnes, the material density was utilized. The final quantities were input into the Environment Agency tool which contains the embodied carbon for most materials used. Components were split up as far as possible to measure the embodied carbon in its elementary material. For some materials this operation was not possible because the embodied carbon of the elementary material was not available in the Environment Agency tool and the suppliers were not able to provide that information. The huge amount of information needed to calculate the carbon footprint through the total life meant that the data input could not be completed. In fact, calculation of the carbon footprint did not consider all the activities from the beginning of the project due to the activity called External Timber Cladding. That activity was accomplished in the middle of June 2008. More attention was placed on the material embodied carbon rather than on transportation impact, plant emission, personal travel and waste disposal. More

26

focus was placed in that direction because the result was more sensitive to the material embodied carbon. The plant emission and the personal travel impact were considered using the calculator placed in the environment agency tool that provides an estimation, knowing the project size and duration. The waste removal impact was considered using the total tonnage produced and the distance between the site constructor and the landfill location. The material embodied carbon in the E.A. tool was split up in many sections relevant to the bill of quantities sections: Substructures, Frame, Upper Floors, Stairs, Roof, External and Internal Walls, Windows and External Doors, Partitions, Internal Doors, Finishes, Fittings and Furnishing, Work to Existing, Site Works and Drainage. Never the less the case study was not completed and the analysis stopped at External and Internal Walls activities. In such way the calculation of the total carbon footprint was easier as the data entry came directly from the bill of quantities. The Total Construction Input summarizes the value in one single spreadsheet whereas the Report spreadsheet shows final results.

4.1.3.2 Results and Considerations A total value of 1331 tonnes of CO2 was measured by the Environment Agency tool. This value is not the final result but only part of it, because of the amount of data involved in the calculation. However, some comments can be made as the value relates to the main activity in the building construction such as foundation, elevation, internal and external wall and roof which involve about 80% of the total construction process.

27

Table 5: Colebourne primary school "Embodied Carbon Indeces".

DATA CO2 Cost Weight Gross Internal Area (GIA)

TOTAL 1331 t 10 million 4178 t 2930 m2

INDECES 133.1 tCO2 / mln 0.454 tCO2 / t material 0.454 tCO2 / m2

Figure 9: Colebourne primary school footprint estimation results

Figure 9 shows the distribution of CO2 in the school building. In particular, it shows high impact for Concrete (33%, 438 tonnes CO2) and metals (28%, 375), compared to Plant emissions (12%, 174), Quarried material (11%, 142), Personal travel (6%,

28

88) and Plastics (6%, 86). It is important to highlight that the impact of personal travel and plant emission are estimated from the tool and are not the actual emission produced in the project. Moreover, it is possible to say that quarried material and plastic will be higher in the remaining activities which contain a higher proportion of that kind of material. Generally, results show that concrete and metals together represent 61% of the total carbon footprint of the building envelope. Table 6 shows the results in more details.
Table 6: Colebourne primary school embodied carbon. Materials Impacts
Material Category Material Mass (Tonnes) Tonnes CO2 (1) % of total CO2 t CO2 / t of material category Major application of material in category XC2 Concrete (C30) Substructures (wire steel) External-Internal walls galvanised steel Frame Roof (ribdeck Decking) Facing Bricks Roof Sound Insulation Mineral wool Roof Echotherm Insulation (UK) Roof Timber Tonnes CO2 (2) % of total (2)/(1) T CO2 (2) / total CO2

Concrete, Mortars & Cement Metals

3636.6

438.1

33%

0.120

377.4 100.4 88.3 59.1 55.4 121.3 48.3 23.3 18.6 892.1

86% 27% 24% 16% 15% 84% 56% 27% 88% -

28.36% 7.55% 6.64% 4.44% 4.16% 9.12% 3.63% 1.75% 1.40% 67.05%

231.1

374.7

28%

1.622

Quarried Material Plastics

228.7

144.7

11%

0.633

55.8

86.0

6%

1.543

Timber Total

39.2 4191

21.2 1065

2% 80%

0.540 -

Table 6 shows that the highest impact comes from Concrete and Metals. It is worth noting that Concrete type XC2 has 86% of the total embodied carbon in the concrete used. Other relevant measure is noted in the value of CO2 substructures and external - internal walls galvanised steel which represent 51% of the total CO2 in steel. This means that the impact of concrete reinforce is significant. Another relevant value is represented in facing bricks which have no structural function yet have a high environmental impact (in terms of embodied carbon). From these considerations it is possible to say that in buildings with these school characteristics, concrete would be the first consideration in reducing CO2. Attention should be made not only to the used of aggregate and cement, but also to the type of steel

29

reinforcement. Further reduction could be gained by a limitation on facing bricks used and by choosing bricks with a low embodied carbon.

30

4.2

Thomas Vale case study

4.2.1 Thomas Vale Group: Company profile Thomas Vale Construction was established over 150 years ago by a young Victorian engineer Thomas Vale. The first of the companys many projects was to construct the unique cast iron bridge spanning the river at Stourport-on-Severn. The bridge still stands and supports the cast iron shields on each spandrel which form the basis of the Groups corporate identity. Thomas Vale Construction is part of the Thomas Vale Holdings Group and employs a direct workforce of just over 500 people, and has nearly 80 active construction sites throughout the UK. The company is growing fast and in 2006 saw turnover increase by 28%. The company employs subcontractors which can boost its total staff numbers by up to 2,000 people. Thomas Vale Group of companies has currently an annual turnover approaching 200 million, with clients from both Public and private sector. The head office is based in Worcestershire and with Region Centres, based in Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Stoke on Trent, Nottingham, Leicester and Reading, Thomas Vale can provide localised delivery with established professional teams and long established supply chain who share their values and commitment of service. The company has welcomed and fully embraced the objectives and

recommendations of various Governmental Reports to modernise construction and to focus on greater efficiency across all of their operations, excellence and exemplary service. Today, around 70% of Thomas Vale workload is undertaken on Long Term Frameworks and Partnerships. They have developed a unique knowledge of working within these types of project, often spanning up to 5 years. However, Thomas Vale still secures around 30% of its work through the traditional route off competitive tendering. This ensures that they are aware of the marketplace and can provide overview and analysis to benefit Clients, in all theirs preferred procurement route.

31

Thomas Vale has always placed special attention to Design and Build, Construction, Maintenance, Education, Healthcare and Requirement, New building, Rail, Industrial and Commercial Interiors, Facilities Management, Social Housing, Regeneration and Piling.

4.2.2 Sutton New Road Offices, Erdington: construction site description Thomas Vale case study concerns 67 Sutton New Road (see figure 10), a key landmark building for Birmingham City Council and is the first visible phase in the Councils Working for the Future business transformation programme. The brief was to create a modern, efficient and flexible building that could be occupied by staff who was previously based in existing, outdated accommodation at Lancaster Circus and Orphanage Road. This project was required to play a vital role in the councils aim of relocating staff away from the city centre in accordance with their regeneration policies.

Figure 10: Sutton New Road Offices, Erdington. Source: Thomas Vale

The building is characterized for a high quality features such as a lightweight metal framing system that reduces foundation loading and ensures that the building fabric is highly insulated and air tight.

32

To ensure that the 6m project was delivered to the agreed timescales, specifications and budgets, Thomas Vale Construction had been working closely with the client Urban Design. The whole life cycle was an integral part of the design concept of this building, together with an achieved very good BREEAM rating. In fact, a lot of emphasis was placed on the construction techniques and methodology with a strong reference to environmental issues. As well as using recycled rainwater (for flushing WCs) to save approximately 1,400 m3 of water per annum and a solar heated hot water system installed on the roof, the building uses an innovative approach to ventilation. The major challenge for the project was to achieve a natural ventilated building without using air conditioning. For this reason, Sutton Road office uses dedicated and automated ventilation units. These units operate automatically to provide outdoor air for the occupants, and to help control the temperature in the offices during warm weather. The ventilation is also designed to work in conjunction with the building structure to further improve the office temperature during the summer. The ceiling structure in most of the office areas has intentionally been left exposed, and by using the ventilators, cool the structure overnight. The temperature will remain more comfortable the following day, as heat from equipment, occupants, and solar gain, is absorbed by the structure, rather than heating the space. The system is designed to provide comfortable condition for the majority of the year and is set up to operate automatically. The ventilation can also be controlled manually using the override switches provided in each working area. The completed scheme will benefit from a low Carbon Footprint for a building of this size, having been designed from outset as a model for minimising carbon emission and lower long term running cost.

4.2.3 Research: data input - output, impact, results and consideration 4.2.3.1 Data Input - Output Analysing a finished case study gives us the possibility to avail our self of effective final data that can be reliable. In fact, this study has been based on the orders register which is completely consultable through IntraVale, the information

33

integrated system utilized by Thomas Vale staff. It is possible to find any information regarding companys projects in detail such as: project details, project staff, staff history, traders and materials order details. Thomas Vale case study has been set up a different way because of the different source of the data. For every order, the material supplied were detailed in terms of: Order Description, Order Number, Company, Number of quantity Dimension, Volume, Quantity (m3, m2 or m), Density, Weight (tonnes), t CO2/t material, Total embodied carbon, Distance of the supplier and category (metals, wood...). That information was introduced in the other material section in the construction input spreadsheet of the Environmental agency tool. This gives us the total building construction carbon footprint and the value for any category. As in GF Tomlinson case study, the plant emission and personal travel have been considered using the calculator placed in the environment agency tool that provides an estimation knowing the project size and duration. The waste removal impact has been considered using the total tonnes produced and the distance between the site construction and the landfill. Some difficulties were encountered where the order covered work and material supply. In this case the order sheet doesnt show the quantity of material but the description of the supplied activity. The calculation in this case was based on the data in the bill of quantities as supplied by the project manager.

4.2.3.2 Results and Considerations A total value of 1043 tonnes of CO2 is registered from Environment Agency tool. It is possible to consider this value to be reliable as its estimation was made considered order sheets. Further studies can be done in order to estimate the emissions generated by the transport from the material origin to the supplier stock site. Figure 11 shows the embodied carbon values for all material categories.

34

Table 7: Sutton New Road Offices "Embodied Carbon Indeces". Source: Author

DATA CO2 Cost Weight Gross Internal Area (GIA)

TOTAL 1043 t 6 million 2640 t 4050 m2

INDECES 133.8 tCO2 / mln 0.395 tCO2 / t material 0.2575 tCO2 / m2

Figure 11: Sutton New Road Offices footprint estimation results

As is shown in Figure 11, Metals, Concrete, Plant emission, Quarried material and Personnel travel have high impact on the total embodied carbon. It is important to emphasise that the metal value (38%, 401 tonnes CO2) is much higher compared to

35

the others: Concrete (19%, 198), Plant emissions (16%, 168), Quarried material (10%, 99.1), Personal travel (8%, 84.8) and plastic (2%, 21.6). As already mentioned, it is important to highlight that the impacts of personal travel and plant emissions are estimated from the tool and are not measured from emissions produced in the project. Further consideration has been made for this value in order to determine the highest impact of materials. Table 8 shows the results of this analysis.
Table 8: Sutton New Road Offices embodied carbon. Materials Impacts
Material Category Material Mass (Tonnes) Tonnes CO2 (1) % of total CO2 t CO2 / t of material category Major application of material in category Tonnes CO2 (2) Structural Steel Frame Mild steel 215.2 401.3 38% 1.865 Reinforcement A252 mesh, 4.8m x 2.4m sheets Concrete C35 1615.4 198.1 19% 0.123 Quarried MOT type 1 facing Brinks Timber & tile lath - 6" x 2" roughsawn timber 158.6 42.0 16.7 21.3 623.5 80% 42% 17% 51% 15.21% 4.03% 1.60% 2.04% 59.8% 364.0 % of total (2)/(1) 91% T CO2 (2) / total CO2 34.90%

Metals

20.9

5%

2.00%

Concrete, Mortars & Cement Quarried Material Timber

721.0

99.1

10%

0.137

66.6 Total 2618.2

41.8 740.3

4% 71%

0.628 -

Table 8 shows that the Structural Steel Frame contributes to 34.90% of the total building embodied carbon and represents 91% of the total metals. This high value registered by the steel is because the main structural frame is made of steel. Steel has a high embodied carbon and that makes its impact more significant. On the other hand, it is important to underline that a steel frame means less weight on the substructure and therefore less foundation and less use of heavy concrete. Concrete has a lower embedded carbon per unit weight of material but it is used more. This results in a high total carbon footprint. In this case study the concrete used is C35 which contains higher percentage of steel reinforcement. These observations are not valid unless the origin of material is considerated. It is probable that steel material comes from outside the United Kingdom whereas most elements in the concrete, apart from the reinforcement, are more likely to be sourced from the UK. Further researches need to be done in order to quantify these points.

36

4.3

Wates case study

4.3.1 Wates Group: Company profile Wates has been providing construction services since Edward Wates and his three brothers began building houses in 1897. The group, still family-owned, has expanded to offer a large range of construction and development services, including building maintenance and facilities management, interior fit-outs, renovations, and real estate development. It works on commercial, industrial, and institutional projects, including shopping centers, schools, prisons, and social housing. During the Second World War, the company developed speciality in constructing pre-cast and in situ reinforced concrete barges and floating docks. After the War the company used this knowledge of pre-cast concrete to develop high-rise and low-rise industrialised housing systems and built over 60,000 houses and flats using these techniques. Wates group is currently structured with five core businesses: Living Space: refurbishing existing affordable homes and building new ones across the UK Construction: building education, commercial and government facilities and refurbishing historic buildings Retail: providing fit-out and refurbishment services across the UK and Ireland Interiors: delivering office fit-out and refurbishment services across the UK Developments: enhancing the value of land and working in selected joint ventures with major house builders In particular, this case study analyzes refurbishing existing affordable homes across the UK as part of Living Place Division core business. Wates Living Space builds new homes, refurbishes existing properties and manages regeneration schemes across England and Scotland. Wates Living Space is one of the countrys leading affordable housing contractors and one of three partners working with Birmingham City Council to improve the 68,000 homes in its public housing stock. Since the birth of the Governments Decent Homes Programme Wates has been a leading contractor in large-scale home improvement projects. Wates is now working with 24

37

customers within long-term partnerships, using local labour wherever possible and recruiting around 75% of staff on these projects from the local community. Wates shares knowledge through their nationwide best practice network to ensure that the customers benefit from their experience right across the country. By working together with neighbourhood partners Wates helps to address a wide range of issues and achieve sustainable and vibrant communities.

4.3.2 Case study description Wates case study analyses a typical three bed house refurbishment in line with the Decent Home programme. Information in the case study was provided by Wates Living Space Midlands which is based in Sovereign Road, Kings Norton. To understand the meaning of the study and the reliability of its information sources, it is useful to provide some background on Decent homes. Decent home provides modern standards relating to fitness, structure, energy-efficiency and facilities. The government wants all social housing in the United Kingdom to be brought up to the Decent Homes standard by 2010. To achieve that goal, a partnerships and networks were developed between local authorities, developers, suppliers and communities. In particular the concept of Decent Home meets the following four criteria: a) Current statutory minimum standard for housing; b) Reasonable state of repair; c) Reasonably modern facilities and services; d) Reasonable degree of thermal comfort. This criterion requires dwellings to have both effective insulation and efficient heating. According to the above criteria, Wates case study considers a full refurbishment in order to cover all main activities Wates Living Space provides. According to Decent home programme the case study was considered a poor condition home and Table 10 shows the criteria which describe that definition.

38

Figure 12: Communities and Local Government: A Decent Home - Definition and guidance for implementation, (Government, June 2006).

The case study involves activities such as: RSF, Windows and Doors, Insulation, Roofing, Painting, Electrics and Central Heating. Because of the different conditions and sizes of dwellings, an average was considered for the material involved. Wates case study is different from that of GF Tomlinson and Tomas Vale cases because it considers the refurbishment activity rather than new building construction. The data collection was easier because less work activities were involved. It considers eight components compared to a whole bill of quantities, which provide an opportunity to pay more attention to each single component. Despite that, there was high sensitivity in the embodied carbon value of one component on the total value because of the huge amount of dwelling refurbishments. Due to this, the component and material suppliers were directly involved in the analysis.
Figure 13: Wates Case Study. Wates Living Space

39

Transport impacts were considered in the distance between the material suppliers and Wates Living Space Midlands office. The transport emissions caused by the travel from Wates office to the site construction was not considered as the case study is not a real activity but a hypothetical situation that considers the average of many refurbishment activities. However the transport impact could be considered as reliable as the biggest impacts are generated in the first transport and only a little part in the second.

4.3.3 Research: data input - output, impact, results and consideration 4.3.3.1 Data input - output Wates case study has been developed considering eight refurbishment components. A proper spreadsheet has been set up for every component and elementary material found. For every component the following was registered: the description, company supplier, quantities in metres and number, density per unit and kg, quantity in tonnes, embodied carbon, distance between supplier to stock site and distance between element origin to supplier. Suppliers were asked to fulfil the spoken pattern and once received the data was compiled in a spreadsheet, called Material data input. A link between this last and the construction input spreadsheet has been developed in order to find out the carbon footprint for the total refurbishment and for all categories. Because the analysis has been done on a hypothetical case, personal travels and plant emission were estimated using the tool provided from Environment Agency. Further analysis could be made in order to provide more specific values. Personal

40

transport, in any single refurbishment was generically considered since suppliers change every time. Plant emission calculation will be possible to measure in any kind of refurbishment by considering the Energy bill paid during the work period.

4.3.3.2 Results and Considerations DATA NOT AVAILABLE

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4.4

Evaluation of Results

4.4.1 Problems and difficulties in tool used and the data collection As mentioned before many problems came out in the carbon calculation because of the unexplored application. Difficulties were found in the use of the tool, because its complexity and organization. In particular, the problems encountered are summarizing as following: Difference between the data required for the tool and available data (bill of quantities and the order sheets). The tool was not built to accommodate the format of a bill of quantity nor the order sheets. All the data are saved in the tool in the same spreadsheet which causes confusion and possible mistakes; The material quantities have different units of measurement. The tool requires the material quantities to be in tonnes whilst the bills of quantity are in various different units (i.e. unit, m2, m3. ml etc...); The embedded carbon values utilized from the tool is an estimation made from the Inventory of Carbon & Energy by the University of BATH and not direct from the sources. The information available is in terms of embedded energy rather than embedded carbon. And thus, the total embedded carbon value can only be considered an estimation not the real value; The tool doesnt consider the embedded carbon in the waste generated. The calculation based on the bill of quantity cannot provide a good estimation of the embedded carbon in the building live cycle. The order sheets can provide a better estimation of the actual material used; The tool doesnt consider the suppliers location in order to estimate the transports impact particularly if the material is provided from different suppliers; The tool considers only elementary material and not the building components therefore these components must be split up in its elements (windows, doors...); The method only considers the CO2 impacts and ignores the impacts of the other 5 Gasses. It is worth noting however that CO2 emissions constitute around 80% of the total impact of green gasses.

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4.4.2 Review of methodologies used Table 10 shows, for each case study, the sources of information used. As is shown, University of BATH was the main source for the process embodied carbon. Only in Wates case study the suppliers information was used as far as available by directly approaching them. The assessment tool provided by the Environment Agency was used in all case studies to determine personal travel and plant emission. The material and waste transport were estimated using the information provided by the project manager and suppliers using Google map. Project managers information was used to assess the use of materials; however every case study was based on different approach. The information in Waste case study was based on suppliers information, GF Tomlinson case study was based on bill of quantities and Thomas Vale case study was based on order sheets as shown in Table 10.
Table 10: Sources and Methodology used each case study.

Data requested
EMBODIED CARBON SOURCES

Type of process and Source of information

Process Embodied carbon *(Inventory of Carbon emission) Process Embodied carbon (Suppliers) Personal Travels and Plant Emissions (Estimation EA tool) Material Transport (Google Map) Waste Transport (Google Map)

Wates

GF Thomas Tomlinson Vale

X X

X X X X X X

X X X

X X X

QUANTITY SOURCES

Suppliers Bill of quantities Orders Sheets Project manager information

X X X X X

As is shown in Table 11, using three different approaches has provided the possibility to examine the following aspects: Basing the analysis on the bill of quantities enable modification of the Environment Agency tool in order to facilitate the data saving. Each bill of

43

quantities entry lead to a bespoken spreadsheet in the environment agency tool in which all the material quantities and carbon value were summarized. A spreadsheet was adapted in the original data entry spreadsheet of the tool, titled construction input spreadsheet. This methodology makes the data saving more intuitive and reduces possible human error. Basing the analysis on order sheets provided reliable benchmarks as the value of material quantities were not the same assessed at the beginning of the project, but those registered on the order sheets. The data was compiled by entering all the information in the other materials section, placed in the construction input spreadsheet of the Environment Agency tool. Basing the analysis on supplier information enabled collection of the component data provided from the suppliers and reliable benchmarks. A bespoke spreadsheet (showing information on the material quantities, distance from the site and carbon value), was established and forwarded to the suppliers. All the information was collected in the other materials section placed in construction input spreadsheet of the Environment Agency tool. Collecting the information directly from the suppliers was used to generate reliable benchmarks.
Table 9: Data Input and Output for each case study.

DATA

GF TOMLINSON
Collect quantities data from Bill of quantities Split up the EA Construction

THOMAS VALE
Collect order sheets from Intravale system Enter all the data in the EA other material spreadsheet

WATES
Collect information from Suppliers Build a spreadsheet for any component showing the quantities and embodied carbon Enter all the data in the EA other material spreadsheet

INPUT

input spreadsheet following the bill of quantities index Summarize all in Total Input spreadsheet Approach to the Carbon footprint calculation Method to collect materials

Method to collect materials data using orders sheet Reliable Benchmark Results Consideration (by analysing results)

Method to collect component data using suppliers information Reliable benchmark Results consideration (by analysing results)

OUTPUT

data using bill of quantities Results Consideration (by analysing results)

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4.4.3 Result Consideration and recommendations The research produced many interesting outcomes, which lead to the following considerations: 1. Company GF Tomlinson and Thomas Vale case studies, both used new buildings in frames made of steel. GF Tomlinson case study was a one floor building while Thomas Vale case study was made of four floors building providing different impacts from the substructures and frames. In particular from these two case studies analysis the following can be made: a. Steel has the highest embodied carbon per unit weight of material used although a steel frame has less weight and therefore requires lighter foundation. b. Concrete has a lower embodied carbon per unit weight of material than steel but it is used in larger quantities. This results in a high total carbon footprint for the frame. The C35 concrete is used more often and it contains a higher average of steel reinforcement. c. Face bricks have high impact per unit mass and this, combined with a high use (like in GF Tomlinson case study), have strong effect on the total result. Choosing low carbon bricks and limiting their use could strongly decrease the total value. Further studies will be needed to compare the different impacts of steel and concrete frames (same building with different frame) and by using different types of face bricks. 2. Refurbishment case study is considerably different from new construction as more focus is placed on the use of components more than materials. The total embodied carbon in new construction is sensitive to the use of materials (as steel and cement), whereas in refurbishment it is more sensitive to the embodied carbon in individual components. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the embodied carbon value of components in order to minimize the carbon impact. Unfortunately it wasnt possible to calculate the payback carbon time because the value of annual carbon saving wasnt found out. Collecting this last and basing the calculation on the total embodied carbon already found, it will be possible to calculate the needed time to payback the major embodied carbon caused from the refurbishment.

45

3. There are substantial differences between recycled materials and new materials regarding the contribution of transport CO2. In fact, the previous considerations were made without including the transport from the origins of material to the UK. Only transport in the UK was considered in the impact on the total embodied carbon of the building. The benefits of using recycle material can be significant in the UK because it avoids the carbon footprint of new material with a much reduced impact on transport. This is illustrated in using recycled concrete and steel which come from UK compared to new material which are imported from other countries.

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5. Conclusion
5.1 Reducing problems and Improving on advantages

Reducing CO2 emission is a delicate topic because it is an untouched field and because of the complexity caused by the various disciplines. This research involved a novel approach of involving applications by construction companies for the measurement of embodied carbon. This project was based on understanding the Environment Agency tool. During the research were come out difficulties and problems in the use of this tools that are shown in paragraph 4.4.1. Little modifications at the tool were done in order to simplify the data saving process and reduce human mistake. This modification could be considered temporary because the calculation is still complicated but is a good base for further software improvements. Within this project are come out methodologies and benchmarks that are only the beginning of a long research that should involve and join more people and skills in order to establish more appropriated methodologies and reliable benchmarks. New methodologies for calculating the embodied carbon in new building construction and refurbishment are come out. In the new building construction is important to pay attention to the most used material, such as concrete and steel, but also on material with high CO2 embodied carbon such as face bricks and Insulation. In refurbishment is important to collect detailed data regarding every single component. Due to these differences is important to use complete different methodologies. In the follow paragraph are shown further future researches that could be done in this field.

47

5.2

Recommended further research: Data base and Software development

Some future researches are suggested below: Short Term Research: One level database that consider elementary material and components to interface with the Environment Agency tool; Medium Term Research: to develop ad hoc Software that is able to interface with first database and possibility to interface with genetic database using different software for different needs; Long Term Research: genetic database that considers the interrelations between elementary material and components. At this stage, it is important to define clear future targets and to divide these by following all terms in order to add value to each step without losing the main final target: to build a flexible system able to easily estimate the embodied carbon of a project and define best practise to reduce the carbon footprint. Figure 14 shows the suggested methodology for calculating the carbon footprint in order to save and detect the information used. As short and medium term research is suggested to develop a one level database that can be interfaced with different software depending on needs weather refurbishment or new build project. The software developed could not identical for every project because each has different methodology for saving quantities data and different needs. Despite this, there can be a common denominator that is the Database.

48

Figure 14: Example of suggested possible future development.

Figure 15 shows an example of one level database that can be developed. As is shown the database requires information such as: ID Product, Provisional ID product, Description, Supplier, Supplier Address, Density and tCO 2 / tmaterial. It is important to assign a Provisional ID product since all the supply chain doesnt get used of this methodology. Supplier information and address are important to understand travel information. tCO2 / tmaterial could already contain the CO2 transport value. This database is easy to fulfil and update. The data input in the software could be recalled by introducing the supplier name (or ID) or a key word present in the description. ID Provisional product ID product
Product. Category. Supplier

Description

Supplier Supplier Density tCO2/ Address (t/m3) tmat.

RG24 8EN

1.1.1

STO External Render Sto Ltd. System (Sto Rent Fibre Sto Tel: +44 (0)1256 fibre coat) Fax: +44 (0)1256
info.uk@stoeu.com

Product. Category. Supplier Product. Category. Supplier Product. Category. Supplier

1.1.2 1.1.3 1.2.1

STO External Render System (Sto Rent Fibre Sto prime) STO External Render System (Sto Rent Fibre Stolit decorative finish) STO External Render System (Sto Rend Flex Cote Sto level cote)

Figure 15: Example of short term database.

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Figure 16 shows how the medium term software will interface with the database. The software could recall the data basing its structure on the bill of quantities categories.

Figure 16: Example of how the medium term software will interface with the database.

Figure 17 shows an example of a genetic database function that considers the interrelations between elementary material and component. In that way every single element is identified and if there isnt enough information to exactly identify the component, an average of the carbon value between the groups of elements could be estimated.

Figure 17: Example of a genetic database.

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Figure 18 shows the relation between hierarchies of elements. For example Father 1 named STO external render system has two children 2 and 3 named STO rend fibre and STO rend flex cote that are two different types of STO external insulations.

Figure 18: Relation between hierarchies of elements.

Logical operation of the presented database is probably the best way to calculate the carbon footprint considering the impact of the components and of single materials.

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6. References
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