To understand more about how considerations of embodied carbon affects different businesses in our industry, SCI held its first Round Table discussion to consider this topic, with a broad range of contributors chosen to give coverage to all key stakeholders. Our invited guests were:
- Alex Baalham (Whitby Wood)
- Rory Bergin (HTA)
- Jonathan Davis (William Hare)
- Roy Fishwick (Cleveland Steel and Tube)
- Penny Gowler (Elliot Wood)
- Stephen Hall (Hadley)
- Suria Jones (LendLease)
- Walter Swan (Arcelor Mittal)
In particular we were keen to hear about the level and types of information that specifiers need, and what manufacturers are currently offering. There has been huge progress made in a very short period of time concerning how clients, designers and others think when specifying materials, although it is clear that there remains a need for consistent and product specific information. Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) are the only way to communicate verifiable, accurate, non-misleading environmental information for products and their application. However, as they are not a mandatory requirement, different EPDs are published in various formats leading to significant discrepancies in the results of whole design assessment and can make comparison of similar projects misleading. More education is also needed to avoid well-intentioned but only partly-informed specifiers following the wrong route.
We also discussed if and how considerations of embodied carbon are affecting choice of structural forms and elements. They clearly are, but again it was felt more guidance on what options are available would help. Clients are motivated by sustainable building schemes; thus, clients should be leading the project in setting up the embodied carbon budget. Having an embodied carbon requirement set by the client it can help engineers take impactful decisions with their designs (e.g. loading requirements). Later this year we will be publishing guidance, funded by BCSA, that will show designers what options they should consider.
We also considered how demountable solutions are being adopted, and how we might overcome the logistical problems associated with using ‘pre-owned’ steel elements. It is clear that re-use holds much promise, despite some practical issues. An interesting suggestion was that ‘downcycling’ in the sense of taking steel from say an office building then using it in an agricultural building could be sensible.
The input of all those who participated is most gratefully acknowledged. The event was both informative and enjoyable.
