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Arup creates international dataset of whole life carbon emissions for buildings

Global sustainable development consultancy, Arup, has created an international dataset capturing total forecast emissions – whole life carbon (WLC) – for buildings in design. WLC data from almost 1,000 building design projects across 30 nations on five continents have been collected and analysed by Arup using it’s new software platform, Zero.

This work has been driven by Arup’s commitment to assess its global building design project portfolio using WLC techniques, announced in 2021 at COP26. Arup’s focus on WLC has allowed it to estimate emissions arising from its global building design project portfolio. The ‘carbon handprint’ for the firm’s building design work is estimated to be 350 times greater than its organisational carbon footprint (Scopes 1, 2 and 3).

The scale of carbon emissions associated with the delivery of Arup’s building design expertise has reinforced the firm’s commitment to collect and analyse WLC data. This data represents a primary metric to drive better decision making by property investors, building owners, designers, construction firms, and regulators. It allows carbon emission reduction options across building subsystems and lifespans to be identified and compared. Initial insights from Zero data have offered new, industry-relevant detail about the embodied carbon profile across building sub-systems. Arup is also developing a whole life carbon-based approach for the decarbonisation of infrastructure projects.

At COP27, Arup announced its ambition to use WLC to accelerate decarbonisation of its building design work and to pursue achievement of the goals of the UN High Level Climate Champions’ 2030 Breakthrough Outcome for the Built Environment. The Breakthrough Outcome calls for all new and refurbished buildings to be net zero in operation and to achieve at least a 40 per cent reduction in embodied carbon by 2030. Arup is calling on other actors across the global property, construction and building design sectors to work together to establish open and comparable WLC datasets.

By joining forces to create large, comparable, and open datasets, the global property sector and its value chain can begin to scale net zero buildings. Early analysis of Zero data indicates an urgent need for accurate carbon benchmarks to guide low carbon design, particularly for the earliest ‘brief’ stage of the building design cycle. However, such benchmarks will be established much more quickly if more WLC data is collected and shared in comparable and open formats.

Dr Alan Belfield, Arup Global Chair, said: “We have collected whole life carbon data from almost 1,000 building projects in 30 countries to create Zero. In taking this crucial first step, we have been driven by a determination to overcome the barriers to scaling net zero buildings. Comparable and open whole life carbon data is the tool that will allow actors across the global property value chain to make better decisions about building decarbonisation – and to achieve significant emission reductions at scale and at pace.”

Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Champion for COP26, said: “The need to decarbonise buildings’ operational and embodied carbon is an urgent one if the global built environment sector is to contribute this decade to progress. We support Arup in its call for all non-state actors in the global property value chain to use whole life carbon data to drive rapid decarbonisation of buildings. The High-Level Champions are calling for all new and refurbished buildings to be net zero in operation and to achieve at least 40% reduction in embodied carbon by 2030 at the very latest.”

Webinar: How to control the flow of people and parcels through your facility – 23 November at 11am

According to Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index, worldwide parcel volume is likely to double in the next five years, with the UK showing the highest increase in carrier revenue of all 13 countries in the Index.

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Yet a recent survey by FMJ in partnership with Pitney Bowes found that 20 per cent of recipients are still using manual paper-based visitor systems, which doesn’t fit with their top priority – to maintain a safe and operational environment.

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In this webinar, Gary Abbott Director of Business Development and Stuart Bushaway, Head of Dealers Operations and FM Relationships at Pitney Bowes will outline the main findings of the two surveys and what this could mean for FMs, followed by a discussion, chaired by FMJ Editor Sara Bean with a panel of thought leaders into the solutions available to meet these challenges.

Register for the webinar here.

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