Report: Construction industry can halve embodied emissions, but ‘systemic change’ needed
The global construction industry has the solutions to halve embodied building emissions, according to a new report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Arup
The construction industry has the potential to slash the embodied emissions contained in new building projects in half, but only if the sector embraces sweeping reforms that can drastically improve resource efficiency, encourage the use of more sustainable materials, and establish circular economy practices.
That is the conclustion of a new report titled Net-zero buildings: Halving construction emissions today, which calls for “high-impact” and “systemic” changes to the industry that could significantly reduce carbon emissions using technologies and methods that are already available.
Released last week, the report from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and engineering consultancy Arup follows a study conducted by WBCSD in 2021, which found that embodied carbon – the carbon emissions emitted through production, transportation, and construction in building projects – accounted for up to 50 percent of a new-build’s carbon footprint.
As such, the new report calls on policymakers and the building industry to place efforts to curb embodied carbon at the heart of the sector’s efforts to transition towards net zero emissions. “We call on companies throughout the built environment and worldwide to implement systemic, not incremental, changes to achieve the shared goal of at least halving our emissions by 2030,” the report states. “We need this systemic change today, as we are already planning what will be built in 2030. For the built environment, 2030 is today.”
The report sets out a series of recommendations in an action plan for the industry, all of which centre on the mantra “doing more with less”.
Presented at the property development conference MIPIM last week, the recommendations call improved carbon data collection acros the industry after the report found only one per cent of building projects are currently calculating the full carbon footprint of construction. Data collection needs to be more widespread and transparent across the industry in order for real progress to be made, the report suggested.
The WBSCD also predicted that better data would enable an attitude of “[treating] carbon like money, setting clear budgetary targets”, which would help inform planning and implementation decisions throughout the construction process.
The report also calls for improved building design, such as layering materials or adjusting the positioning of carbon-intensive columns so as to minimise the number required, and urges architects and developers to consider the reusability of materials so as to lay the foundations for a construction industry based on circular economy models.
Chris Carroll, Building Engineering Director at Arup, said: “This report shows that property developers, and their appointed teams, can achieve significant carbon reduction targets now. It is possible to at least halve embodied carbon emissions in construction now by better using what is already available.
“But there is no single solution or silver bullet. Earliest possible, systemic and collaborative thinking is the route forwards.
“There must be urgency in our action. The global climate crisis is more evident by the day, and today’s actions are crucial. Carbon must become a priority, equal to money in all future decision-making.”
His comments were echoed by Roland Hunziker, director, built environment at WBCSD, who said tackling embodied carbon would require co-operation across the industry. “Our new report highlights the importance of radical collaboration across the entire value chain to achieve this goal,” he said. “We identify practical and holistic measures that can be deployed in any building project around the world now.”
