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Whole Life Carbon

On Thursday 12th May Constructing Excellence South West & Future Foundations, along with Sustain hosted  the "Whole Life Carbon: the sum of the parts" conference which provided the latest knowledge, experience and thinking on embodied carbon in construction. Over 100 delegates attended the conference in The Bath Guildhall and Councillor Sarah Bevan, Chairman of Bath and North East Somerset Council gave an opening address followed by expert speakers from Sustain, Construction Excellence South West and Future Foundations, University of Bath, Halcrow Yolles and SWRDA, KeepMoat, Simons and White Design.

Summary of the presentations:

Whole Life Carbon - the sum of the parts (95KB) - Matt Fulford, Sustain

  • Matt set out the financial imperative to taking a whole life carbon approach and demonstrated how the whole life carbon profile of buildings will change in the next decade.

Setting the Landscape- Including Drivers, Opportunities, Policy and Legislation (1MB)  - Dr. Craig Jones, Sustain

  • Craig introduced the policy landscape for whole life carbon and briefly explained some existing and emerging standards in the area such as PAS2050 and CEN TC350.

Introducing Embodied Carbon- The ICE Database (1.23MB) - Prof. Geoff Hammond, University of Bath

  • Geoff gave the thinking and rigour behind the freely available Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database.

Counting Carbon- A look at Tools and Resources (829KB) - Thomas Store, Construction Excellence and Future Foundations

  • Thomas explained the concept of taking a whole life carbon approach and covered some resources that can help assess and reduce whole life carbon in buildings.

Whole Life Cost and Carbon- Sustainable Offices (452KB) - Dr. Jon Atkinson, Halcrow Yolles and Mark Wray, SWRDA

  • Jon and Mark of Halcrow Yolles and SWRDA respectively presented a retrospective whole life carbon case study of three SWDRA funded offices in the South West and explained how some zero operational carbon strategies did not incur significant embodied carbon additions.

Practical steps to lowering residential carbon emissions without raising overall carbon emissions (3MB) - Nigel Banks, KeepMoat

  • Nigel Banks presented some solutions to reduce embodied carbon in new build and retrofit domestic housing. These included off-site construction methods and use of renewable insulation materials.

Construction Site Impacts- Measurement and Reduction (3.14MB) - Dr. Rosi Fieldson, Simons

  • Rosie described Simon’s site level measuring and monitoring activities of scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions and also pointed out some resulting targeted opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from construction site activities. She also highlighted some constraints and benefits of site level measurement and reduction.

Renewable Materials- Working within the carbon cycle, rather than upon it (5.3MB) - Craig White, White Design

  • Craig showed how the built environment can become the next major carbon sink by utilising renewable construction materials such as timber, hemp and straw.

Thomas Speaking

Thomas Store speaking at the Whole Life Carbon Conference in Bath

Construction for a changing Climate: Building for Resilience DVD launch conference

We have been busy helping Climate South West create a CPD film to support construction industry professional in adapting to the impacts of extreme weather and climate change. The film was produced by Widescreens.co.uk.  It includes interviews with expert speakers and features case studies covering homes, commercial buildings and new developments.  We will be officially launching the DVD at a conference featuring all the participants from the DVD who give more in-depth presentations on their case studies featured in the film. There will also be an opportunity to quiz the expert panel on adaptation issues all delegates will be given a free copy of the DVD.

Speaker will include:

  • Prof. Bill Gething- Author of Design for a Future Climate
  • Lesley Seymour-Buro Happold, Future Foundations
  • Fionnuala Costello-Technology Strategy Board
  • Judy Gibson-Climate Witness
  • Dan Green-Wessex Water
  • Tbc-WSP/ Wiltshire Council
  • Beulah Keane- Marks & Spencer
  • Alan Wylde- Swindon Council and Robin Parker-NPS
  • Simon Martin-Bath & NE Somerset Council
  • Mark Hodgson- Widescreen Stories

The conference will take place at Arup, 63 St Thomas Street, Bristol, BS1 6JZ Bristol on the 14thSeptember 2011 from 10-4pm. Please click here for more information and how to book http://www.buildsw.org.uk/climate_change

Widescreen filming on-site at Bath Riverside Development with Crest Nicholson 

Widescreen filming on-site at the Eden project