Laing O'Rourke has developed a new, industry leading carbon calculator.

The calculator can quickly analyse levels of embodied carbon using the digital model, enabling its technical team to reduce the carbon content of projects.

The digital tool which has been developed in line with latest industry guidance focuses on the embodied carbon content of the sub- and super-structure elements, which can account for more than half of the upfront embodied carbon in a typical building project.

Since May 2021, Laing O'Rourke's in-house technical leaders have used the new calculator on 14 bid submissions, quickly identifying changes that reduced the embodied carbon in the original designs by up to 19%.


Phase one of the carbon calculator uses an internal Laing O'Rourke app, which automates the analysis of the digital model. It extracts and indexes key information relating to a project design, such as component quantities and classification information.

Joanna Vezey, Europe Technical Director at Laing O’Rourke, explained how the calculator works.

"The app creates an auditable trail of all model revisions through the design phase. This brings benefits not only to carbon measurement, but also change, data validation and cost control. It does this by processing thousands of models each day across both of our operating hubs, constantly checking for new models and changes to existing ones. It currently holds several billion data points," she said.

In phase two of the process, the app connects to a second database which houses all of Laing O'Rourke's carbon material data.

The company's material database has been developed using information provided from the Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database and continues to grow as the business adds Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) data from its supply chain partners.