Practical limitations in Embodied Energy and Carbon measurements, and how to address them: a UK case study

The built environment is blamed for producing the majority of carbon emissions. While policy remains focused on emissions during the operational phase, research demonstrates that embodied impacts are a significant proportion of whole life ones. This paper presents a case study of a building that integrates low-energy design features. The study was carried out during the construction phase enabling superior quality of data to be collected. The cradle-to-grave embodied impacts were modelled to the TC350 Standards using an innovative tool, and the operational impacts through simulation, incorporating future climate predictions. In spite of the data quality, the study demonstrates a high level of uncertainty due to a number of industry-wide issues. This paper identifies these issues and concludes that considerable barriers to measuring embodied impacts remain. Key recommendations are made for industry and policy, in order to gear up the measurement and reduction of embodied impacts of buildings

How much do we spend to save? Calculating the embodied carbon costs of retrofit

The drive to reduce carbon emissions from domestic housing has led to a recent shift of focus from new-build to retrofit. However there are two significant differences. Firstly more work is needed to retrofit existing housing to the same energy efficiency standards as new-build. Secondly the remaining length of service life is potentially shorter. This implies that the capital expenditure – both financial and carbon - of retrofit may be disproportionate to the savings gained over the remaining life. However the Government’s definition of low and zero carbon continues to exclude the capital (embodied) carbon costs of construction, which has resulted in a lack of data for comparison. The paper addresses this gap by reporting the embodied carbon costs of retrofitting four individual pilot properties in Rampton Drift, part of an Eco-Town Demonstrator Project in Cambridgeshire. Through collecting details of the materials used and their journeys from manufacturer to site, the paper conducts a ‘cradle-to-gate’ life cycle carbon assessment for each property. The embodied carbon figures are calculated using a software tool being developed by the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge. The key aims are to assess the real embodied carbon costs of retrofit of domestic properties, and to test the new tool; it is hoped that the methodology, the tool and the specific findings will be transferable to other projects. Initial changes in operational energy as a result of the retrofit works will be reported and compared with the embodied carbon costs when presenting this paper

Pathways to Low Carbon Building: Reflection on the Special Issue

In 2014, this journal invited me to edit a special issue on low carbon building. We put out a call for papers that offered new perspectives, crossing boundaries between technical and social research approaches. The six papers selected and published have emanated from university departments and research centres of Engineering, Architecture, Energy, Design, Urban Planning, Environment, and Sustainable Building. Together they represent a unique and highly readable snapshot of the multiple approaches to this crucial issue—but they also do more; read as a whole they allow the reader to draw new conclusions about the way forward. This editorial draws together and reflects on the six papers, concluding with recommendations for urgent and vital actions for policy makers, professionals and academics

Constructing sustainability: connecting the social and the technical in a case study of school building projects

This thesis traces the political interpretation of sustainability, and its translation into practice in English school building programmes during the period 2000-2010. Social power theory is used to analyse the complex network of decisions, and their consequences, through case studies of policy development and of building projects. The thesis describes how the control of appointments to task forces and of the issues considered allowed Government to manage the framing of the policy agenda while seeming to validate industry perspectives. The process led to a political interpretation of sustainability that translated into two main technical solutions: improved operational energy efficiency and low-carbon energy technologies. Within construction projects the potential power of professional experts to produce alternative solutions is also demonstrated, through the example of the successful introduction of cross-laminated timber to reduce embodied carbon. Outcomes are therefore shown to have been substantially influenced by the exercise of both political and professional power. The thesis also shows the unintentional power effects of procurement processes and design tools in defining and limiting possibilities, the restricting power of the professional systems within which the actors operate, and the power of numbers to provoke unreflective trust. These effects are shown to have led to some irrational solutions, with the thesis demonstrating that the energy technologies installed in three projects are likely to produce higher, not lower, carbon emissions. These multiple power effects have therefore constrained thinking and possibilities for the interpretation of sustainability for construction, have limited the subsequent translation into practical solutions, and have had a substantial and at times negative effect on the material performance of the resultant buildings. In addition the technologies and numbers have not only been used, and therefore governed, by the actors but also appear to have governed them, limiting their actions and understanding of sustainability

Improved embodied energy and carbon accounting: recommendations for industry and policy

The majority of carbon emissions arise from the built environment, a fact which has led to a global policy focus on reducing carbon and energy from buildings in use. However, research demonstrates that embodied carbon is also an increasingly significant proportion of the whole life impacts from buildings. Embodied carbon is not yet the subject of regulation, and although the CEN TC350 standards provide a methodology, there remains a significant variation in its measurement. This paper investigates some of the issues and difficulties that need to be addressed before widescale regulation can be enforced. The investigation uses a detailed case study of a low-energy school building, studied during its construction phase. The cradle-to-grave embodied impacts were modeled to the TC350 Standards using an innovative tool, and the operational impacts were modeled to incorporate future climate predictions. In spite of the care taken over data collection and the collective support of the process from all stakeholders, the study demonstrates a high level of uncertainty in results, resulting from industry-wide barriers to embodied carbon measurement. Key recommendations are made for industry and policy, in order to overcome the current barriers and enable more accurate and comparable measurement of the embodied carbon of buildings.We would like to thank the stakeholders of the school: the architect Ms Daniela Muscat, the bursar of the school Mr Richard Brent, the contractor Mr Gareth Godfrey, the building services engineer Ms Sarah Leggo, and New World Timber Frame. We are grateful to the George and Marie Vergottis Foundation for financial support of Gavotsis during the period of this research at the University of Cambridge.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Athens Institute for Education and Research via http://www.athensjournals.gr/technology/2015-2-1-1-Gavotsis.pd

Editorial: Gender and Intersectionality in Engineering

This Special Issue of the “International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology” focuses on the issue of gender, and of how gender intersects with other aspects of diversity, in engineering. Published in 2019 in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Engineering Society, and to coincide with the International Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June, we have brought together some of the latest work on this critical area, from multiple perspectives and contexts, and from across the globe

Using an analysis of concrete and cement EPD: verification, selection, assessment, benchmarking and target setting

The carbon embodied in buildings is an important proportion of our emissions and needs to be radically reduced in order to support climate change mitigation. The highest proportion of embodied carbon is usually emitted during the product stage, and within the structural elements. Therefore, reducing the carbon embodied in the structural materials is likely to have a major impact. In most buildings, the majority of embodied carbon comes from steel and concrete. But although there are now hundreds of registered Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for cements and concretes, there has been very limited independent published information comparing the embodied carbon of different concrete mixes and raw materials. This lack of comparative data limits the potential to make appropriate decisions at early design stages leading to low carbon buildings. The authors have recently conducted a review of verified EPD for concrete mixes and for concrete’s key constituents, including cement, identifying the range of carbon coefficients. This paper provides guidance on making use of the coefficient ranges provided in that research: to support the verification of EPD for concrete and its raw materials; in material selection; in assessing building level embodied carbon; in benchmarking; and in the setting of reduction targets

Investigating the Perspectives of Social Value for a UK Flood Alleviation Scheme

The argument presented in this paper calls for an approach to flood infrastructure that considers not only the need for a technical perspective in design and construction but also a social perspective. As a result of climate change and changing weather patterns, it is predicted that more intense rainfall will be experienced, as well as rising sea levels, resulting in a greater number of people across the world becoming vulnerable to flood events. The need for flood alleviation infrastructure is therefore highly likely to increase. However industry professionals responsible for design and construction have often neglected to see flooding as a social problem; consequently they focus only on the technical and cost-effective, rather than the social end user orientated, aspects of their design solutions. This paper presents the preliminary findings from research that seeks to understand how the social value of flood alleviation schemes is interpreted and discussed. The results are derived from an examination of the Didsbury Flood Storage Basin Improvements scheme between April and August 2013 in Manchester, UK. A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with both the community and those responsible for the design, delivery and construction of the scheme. The findings presented demonstrate how social value is articulated by both groups, and where a difference in interpretation and perspectives exists. These findings reinforce the argument that adopting a socially, as well as technically, considerate approach for future flood infrastructure design and construction is a necessity, as more communities around the world are exposed to the very real risk of flood events.This research was carried out with the aid of funding from an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) iCase doctoral award.This is the final version. It was first published by the Research Division of Social Sciences of ATINER in Athens Journal of Social Sciences at http://www.athensjournals.gr/social/Cover-2014-04social.pdf