BioRegional has recently carried out work for the Environment Agency to find out what the construction sector thinks about using carbon calculators to assess the embodied carbon impact of their projects.

With the construction industry accounting for 15%-20% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, carbon calculators have been developed to help the industry make informed carbon reduction decisions. Carbon Calculators for construction industry projects come in many forms but their basic function is to calculate the carbon embedded within a construction project.

-- Advertisement --

BioRegional contacted a wide range of people across the industry from environmental managers to footprinting experts. Findings indicated that although carbon calculators are considered an important tool for use in the construction industry, they are not in widespread use. The two main barriers for this are concerns over the accuracy of calculators and the lack of added value that they currently bring to a project.

To overcome these barriers solutions could include having common underlying base data for tools that is openly accessible and supported by government and more legislation, and pressure for reducing carbon emissions that would increase the value of carbon calculators.

(JM)