Reduce Embodied Carbon in Low-rise Office Buildings in the UK

USE OF NATURAL BUILDING MATERIALS TO REDUCE EMBODIED CARBON IN LOW-RISE OFFICE BUILDINGS IN THE UK

1.            Background

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Carbon Reduction from the built Environment (Importance and need, along with policies) 

Over the last decades, there have been various evidences that show the climate is changing rapidly (Houghton JT et al., 2001) and the change will endure with time (Cabeza et al., 2014). Numerous researches associate human activities as the drivers of this current changing climate due to emissions of high amounts of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere (IPCC 2017), this has become one of the major threats to our society. These GHG emissions are referred coherently as carbon emissions, which arises from the general practice of comparing the global warming potential of different GHG gases to that of carbon dioxide (CO2) using the measurement unit of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Among all the sectors, the building construction sector places the most pressure on the natural environment (Pomponi & Moncaster, 2016), while it provides for basic need of shelter requirement and infrastructure for civilisations, it also places various ecological threats. In the UK, it is responsible for about 40% of the total GHG emissions, further it also accounts for 45% of the final energy consumption, 50% of raw materials extraction and 32% of waste flows (Pomponi & Moncaster, 2016) (Chau, Leung, & Ng, 2015). Thus, inevitably the building sector becomes a key focus of efforts to tackle climate change and offer cost effective and significant improvements for sustainable environmental management (United Nations Environment Programme, 2009, p. 4). Various incentives have been taken in order to mitigate the effects of these emissions, crucial when the UK is bound to sustain its global commitment made in the Climate Change Act 2008 of reducing its target emissions to 80% by 2050 relative to the 1990 baseline (DECC, 2008).

As a result of this commitment, many legislative policies and building regulations on low carbon building have been introduced, which till date (as in Building Regulations Part L) mainly concentrate on reducing the operational carbon emissions of the buildings. As operational carbon account for 40% of all UK carbon emissions while building construction accounts for 10% (Carbon Trust 2009; HM Government 2010), this may be the primary reason embodied carbon emissions are neglected from the legislative attention (Michele Victoria, 2016). Due to these policies, the operational carbon is relatively reducing, leading to increase in significance of embodied carbon. Thus, to decrease overall carbon whilst complying with the 80% reduction goal, both operational and embodied carbon of buildings need to be significantly reduced (Richardson, 2017). Increase in energy efficient buildings may reduce emissions in the coming years but without focusing on the parallel reductions in embodied emissions, the present savings that could be currently made are being compromised, often instead leading to short term impact (Pomponi, De Wolf, & Moncaster, 2018).

Arguments on importance of EC have slowly added up over the past few years and have led to its gained momentum in the field. Apart from growing number researches on the importance of EC (fig if possible of number of studies coming each year on EC), industrial consultancies have developed tools for its assessments and product manufacturers have incorporated the effects of GWP on various EC stages of the product life (Pomponi et al., 2018). However, there is still a widespread disparity in the current methods and knowledge regarding EC, thus there is a vital need for a coherent body to form regulatory policies which can induce real change in forming decisions regarding construction of our built environment. Otherwise there is a risk of getting cocooned in a pool of detached ideas.

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Hence to form coherent ideas and policies, it has become exceedingly crucial to first understand emissions and impact assessments related to embodied carbon. EC assessment focuses on global warming potential of the products and excludes emissions associated with combustion of fossil fuels required for building use, known as operational carbon. The embodied carbon of any building is defined as the CO2e emissions associated with extraction, manufacturing, transport, installation, maintenance and replacement, and subsequent demolition and disposal of materials used in construction (Anderson & Thornback, 2012). These processes can be divided into 3 categories, processes from extraction to installation of materials are termed as Initial EC, Recurring EC, includes the maintenance and repair or replacement and Demolition EC associated with end of life of the materials (fig if possible)(Michele Victoria, Srinath Perera, 2016). Another phase of recycling of materials after demolition can be accounted for in EC assessment, however many projects exclude this phase.

Fig – (Michele Victoria, Srinath Perera, 2016)

Growing Importance of EC in current scenario

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The importance of embodied carbon along with operational carbon is evident and there is a growing understanding of the beneficial consequences of its reduction. Reasons attributed to its growing importance can be:

• The UK government have made recommendations in 2010 regarding implementation of a standard methodology to calculate embodied carbon in early design stage and in 2012 subsequently published TC350 standards for the same (Moncaster & Symons, 2013).
• After the inclusion of operation carbon reduction through Part L Building Regulation in 2006, the embodied carbon percent of the buildings kept rising from initially 10% of the total (Azzouz et al., 2017) to now 15-50% (Richardson, 2017)(RICS, 2012).

Figure: The ratio of embodied to operational carbon increases as Building Regulation are revised (RICS, 2012)

• The electricity sector is predicted to undergo complete decarbonisation (by 2050 there will be 95% reduction in carbon emission by a unit of electricity)(RICS, 2017), this will significantly reduce the operational carbon of any building. Hence, paving a way for improvements in embodied carbon reduction.

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Figure 5: Greenhouse Gas intensity of UK electricity, 2010-2050 (RICS Professional Information, UK, 2012)

• According to IPCC, instead of focusing on 30 years later targets there is an urgent need of current reductions in yearly carbon emission. Reducing emissions from construction and demolition of present building stock can achieve this and embodied carbon reduction is a way to do so (Pomponi et al., 2018).

Current state of building’s embodied carbon in non-commercial buildings

EC in buildings depend on the building typology and its use. As non-commercial buildings have high operational carbon (add fig or source), with grid decarbonisation the relative significance of their embodied carbon is bound to increase. The below figure shows assumed increase in fraction of EC of an office building after grid decarbonisation

Fig 1 shows proposed emission reductions by each sector in the UK. We see that by 2022, the carbon reductions in non-commercial buildings are supposed to drop significantly, for workplace and jobs sector it is assumed to be reduced till approximately 580 mtCO2e. The current emissions from offices are —————  . This means there is still much need for reductions in offices. For a typical new developed office, the current EC accounts for 40-50% of the total (Candau, 2016). This is a high fraction and there is a much need for improvement.

Figure 1: Proposed emission reductions per UK sector by 2025 (Adapted from DECC)

Influence of initial planning (materials) on building embodied carbon

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An emission reduction target route map was developed in 2013 (GCB, 2013) which manifested the way for future reductions, though recent updates show that the mitigation strategies adopted to date are insufficient to deliver these targets (Steele et al., 2015). This gap arises due to increased embodied carbon in new assets and will keep increasing if grid decarbonisation does not accelerate or if carbon storage strategies in new construction are not adopted and these technologies remain unviable to material manufacturers (Giesekam & Pomponi, 2017). Therefore, construction materials can play a vital role in future path of overcoming the gap between predicted and actual emission reductions. Early implementation of low carbon strategies in building designs, focusing on appropriate material selection for carbon storage, can prove to be highly beneficial.

or

Early implementation of low carbon strategies in building designs prove to be beneficial (Pomponi & Moncaster, 2016) . Like selection of appropriate materials which store carbon throughout the building life, can play a vital role in overcoming the gap between predicted and actual emission reductions targets.

There are various other informed decisions and strategies that can be undertaken during early stage design which can mitigate embodied emissions throughout building life (Lupíšek et al. 2016; Pomponi and Moncaster, 2016). Some of these corresponding to building materials can be:

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• Using alternate building materials (Cabeza et al., 2013; Giesekam et al., 2014;Giesekam et al., 2016c) – substituting alternate low carbon building materials can reduce the EC in a building by 17-30% of its initial value (Candau, 2016).
• Using Life cycle carbon analysis in material manufacturing: The assessment of life cycle carbon help the companies to identify emission reduction opportunities throughout the process of material manufacturing (Shi & Meier, 2012). This will result in efficient emission reduction throughout the UK and increased number of usage of low carbon materials (Basbagill et al., 2013).
• Reuse and Recycle of building materials: adopting the circular economy approach encourages reuse of building components and structure, which will reduce life cycle carbon emissions (Giesekam & Pomponi, 2017) (Pomponi & Moncaster, 2016).
• Use of biogenic materials – along with having very low emissions, these materials also store carbon, which in turn benefits in reducing GHG from the environment (Giesekam & Pomponi, 2017).

Figure 2: Tackle Carbon early – more opportunities for reductions exist earlier in the construction process

RICS (2017) suggests, embodied carbon reduction potential is high during early design stages and continues to decrease as design develops. There is less room for flexibility and change and more carbon is committed in the project. This can be contradicted as many design variables at initial stages are temporary and only a few parameters are fixed, while assessment methods require high amount of very specific data to undergo complex calculations (Gerva´sio et al. 2014). Therefore it is a relatively new path (RICS, 2017) and there are limitations to current standards and researches, to aid in early decision making. This study discusses in detail one such early design decision of using biogenic building materials to reduce building embodied carbon.

(total words till here – 1550)

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CHAPTER 2

Literature Review

2.1 What is Life Cycle Carbon?

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LCA and Embodied carbon as its Component

Life cycle assessment is a standardized method of assessing the environmental impacts associated with the life stages of a building or a product. It quantifies the total carbon emitted by a building throughout its life (Pomponi et al., 2018). The different stages involved in LCA calculations are represented below in the (fig). As the need to reduce GHG gases from the atmosphere rises, the need to present quantified emissions from buildings or products also increase. Thus, LCA study is crucial to understand the overall performance of a building (Pomponi et al., 2018) and its environmental impact. The standalone numeric output values of its emissions are not so relevant by itself unless when comparisons are to be made and a better option is to be selected without any risks. Also, there still lies large amount of disparities in methods to calculate LCA, this can become a constraint for making comparisons.

LCA was studied extensively in the past to understand impact from all stages (Pomponi et al., 2018), though in general practice it is seldom that each and every stage is considered, and researchers or manufacturers tend to take into account only the stages which are the most relevant and are considered to make the most impact on whole life cycle.

Some of the useful terminologies to understand LCA are:

• Various environmental impact are quantified in LCA studies such a GWP (Global warming potential), ozone depletion, eutrophication, non – renewable energy use and land acidification (US Green Building Council 2013). The GWP calculations are most utilised in studies and correspond to use of product and its production activity (Moncaster & Symons, 2013)
• EPD – Environmental product Declaration. Environmental impact of a product over its whole life, specified by the manufacturers and must comply with ISO 14025 and 21930 standards (Pomponi et al., 2018)

• PCR – Product Category Rules. Guidelines for measurement used by the industry to specify a product’s EPD (Carbon Leadership Forum 2015).

Embodied carbon assessments are a sub part of LCA assessments as shown in fig, although there can be differences in their methodological assessments as shown in table

Figure 2-1: How embodied carbon assessment fits into the wider scheme of LCA (Richardson, 2017)

Major difference between LCA and embodied carbon assessment:

Fig. 6.1 Relationships between ISO Standards, LCA, PCRs, and EPDs

Embodied carbon assessment methods

There are three primary methods known for LCA and subsequently embodied carbon assessment:

• Process based analysis (SETAC-EPA approach)

• Environmentally extended input-output analysis (EEIO)

• Hybrid analysis (combination of process analysis and EEIO)