Why we need whole life carbon data to scale net zero buildings

Summary of Key Points from the Report on Scaling Net Zero Buildings

The report highlights the critical role of buildings in addressing climate change, emphasizing the need for rapid scaling of decarbonization efforts within the building sector. It outlines several key points:

1. Coverage of Net Zero Targets: The global effort towards net zero targets is widespread, encompassing countries, regions, cities, and private sector organizations. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive coverage, particularly at the sub-national level in countries without national targets.

2. Scaling Challenges: Despite the widespread commitment to net zero, there is little evidence of significant progress in scaling the decarbonization of buildings. This highlights the urgency needed to accelerate action.

3. Net Zero Numbers: Out of 198 countries, 713 regions, 1,177 cities, and 2,001 companies have set net zero targets. Businesses are increasingly committing to net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier, indicating a growing awareness of the need for urgent action.

4. Decarbonization Metrics: The focus shifts towards understanding and managing whole life carbon emissions, encompassing both operational and embodied carbon. This includes accounting for emissions throughout the entire lifecycle of a building, from initial construction to demolition and disposal.

5. Whole Life Carbon Data Gap: The availability of global, comparable, and comprehensive data on whole life carbon emissions for buildings is limited. This hinders the ability to effectively manage and reduce carbon footprints, particularly in the absence of regional-specific electrical grid decarbonization data.

6. Arup's Commitment: Arup, a leading engineering consultancy, has committed to assessing all its building projects using whole life carbon assessments and has withdrawn from fossil fuels. They have utilized the Zero platform to gather data from 950+ assets across 5 continents, involving over 16 different building typologies and contributing data from 1,174 project engineers and design team members.

7. Key Findings from Data Analysis: Insights from the data collected by Zero include:

   • The scale of the climate impact of Arup's services as measured by their carbon footprint and handprint.
   • The increasing trend in carbon emissions during the design and construction cycle, suggesting a need for early intervention.
   • Opportunities to identify low carbon best practices and high carbon intensity outliers through trend analysis.
   • The importance of detailed data from later stages of projects for setting more accurate carbon benchmarks.
   • The necessity for more industry-wide data to inform early design decisions and support net zero optioneering.

8. Future Research Focus: The report identifies areas for further research, particularly focusing on the relative proportions of embodied carbon by building sub-systems and the visibility of material data in mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems.

9. Call to Action: The report concludes with a call for the building design, construction, and property sectors to commit to achieving net zero operations by 2030 and a 40% reduction in embodied carbon. It emphasizes the need for immediate and concerted action to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Action Items:

• Increase collaboration and sharing of data among stakeholders.
• Develop comprehensive, region-specific data on grid decarbonization.
• Utilize tools like Zero for data gathering and analysis.
• Set clear benchmarks and targets for reducing carbon emissions.
• Focus on early design phases to mitigate carbon impacts.