Standardising data goes hand-in-hand with net zero

Late last year, the pilot programme for the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (NZCBS) was launched. Described as ambitious but achievable, the standard sets out a practical definition of net zero for building performance and construction quality.

This industry-led standard is a response to the UK’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050 and the need for consistent rules around net-zero carbon. As David Partridge, chair of the NZCBS’s governance board put it, the industry is crying out for a single standard that covers embodied and operational carbon and applies to all building types.

As part of its core principles, the standard encourages the adoption of a whole-life carbon approach. This overarching assessment of a building’s carbon emissions requires a huge amount of data, relating to each phase of its life, from the manufacture of materials through to daily operational emissions such as heating and electricity and finally to the building’s demolition.

Lifecycle embodied carbon is a large part of this assessment too, focusing purely on the carbon cycle of construction materials. This cycle is broken down into three stages: upfront carbon (pre-construction emissions, like transport); in use (such as repair and maintenance); and end-of-life (i.e. disposal).

It is evident that, to assess these three stages of a building material, comprehensive reporting and product data is necessary if participants are to meet this aspect of the standard. The current pilot organisations will need to collect and manage important data diligently.

To handle such vast volumes of data, standardisation of information is key. Product information needs to be both machine-readable and consistent, so that anyone involved in a construction project can see all the properties that make up building materials, including environmental aspects such as energy use and carbon footprint. Standardising data in this way will also allow accurate and continuous measurement of construction materials throughout their lifecycle.

There are tools that can help ease the burden of getting data into these standardised formats. Data templates, for example, provide a uniform framework within which to record the defining characteristics of products and materials, according to international and European data standards.

Structuring and digitising data in these templates is also an important first step towards integrating digital product passports (DPPs), which have been specified by the European Commission as solutions to make construction greener and more circular.

DPPs will play an important role in the sharing and understanding of product data by providing traceability of materials across supply chains. The information contained in a DPP for a construction product – such as its performance and how to repair or recycle it at the end of its life – will prove valuable for all construction stakeholders, including manufacturers, building contractors and end users.

DPPs will not only increase industry interoperability and facilitate efficient data transfer, they will also provide crucial information to help calculate the environmental impact of buildings – including lifecycle embodied carbon. Their introduction will shift the dial in the construction industry towards a circular economy, and away from the extremely elevated levels of carbon emissions.

By standardising the term net zero, construction stakeholders also have an opportunity to standardise the methods they are using to assess data about products and materials. Alignment of product information offers a measurable pathway to decarbonisation while facilitating the transition to a circular economy. Simplifying and standardising systems is a must if the UK construction industry is to reach its net-zero targets

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