Turner & Townsend has launched an embodied carbon calculator that enables clients to evaluate the carbon footprint of projects from an early design stage through to practical completion of the construction process.
The tool is designed to follow established project planning stages, starting from the Royal Institute of British Architects Stage 2. It aligns with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) New Rules of Measurement 1 and third-party standards, such as the UK Green Building Council, as well as benchmarking performance against industry targets proposed by built environment industry network LETI.
The proprietary software integrates with T&T’s existing benchmarking and cost-planning applications, incorporating the management of carbon as a currency with its capital equivalent. Both currencies are managed in parallel via the same custom application.
T&T’s ambition is that the tool will allow it to create a market-leading database of global benchmarks and best practice.
The next step in the development of the calculator will be to measure operational carbon.
From cost management to carbon management
Patricia Moore, UK MD at T&T, said the launch of the calculator reflected the changing role of the cost manager: “As the industry commits to meeting net zero, we see a fundamental shift in the role of the cost manager to now control and account for the two currencies of construction – cost and carbon. Through the creation of our new calculator, we can ensure that there is clear integration of these priorities on our clients’ projects.
“The investment we have made in our digital capability has enabled us to build an application that can provide consistent and accurate assessments of a project’s embodied carbon count from an early design stage. This will play a vital part in our clients’ journey towards a robust, measurable net-zero ambition.”
Matthew Collins, senior specialist – construction & infrastructure management at RICS, said: “T&T’s calculator is exactly what the industry needs to help bring the impacts of embodied carbon to the forefront of discussions with clients and end-users.
“Enabling the embodied carbon of project designs, across all stages, to be measured in accordance with the RICS Professional Statement in Whole Life Carbon Assessment and reported in a consistent way, will allow more informed decisions to be made with respect to cost and carbon.”
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