COP26 - 11/11/21

By Hannah Beirne

Thursday was built environment day, so I found myself back in the Green Zone to discuss the actions needed by our industry to tackle the climate crisis. The built environment accounts for over 40% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, so it is crucial that we ensure that we construct conscientiously and keep efficiency and sustainability at the top of the agenda.

Kicking off with the Construction Leadership Council Q&A, I sat myself down in the crowded room to listen to delegates from across the industry, from manufacturers to engineers to contractors, assess their role in the construction chain and how they can contribute to change. Every part of the process, from the products and materials we choose for buildings to our methods of construction, is being re-engineered to guarantee a substantial reduction in our footprint.

CPW have been working to reduce on-site emissions for many years. There are various ways in which we can make the construction process more sustainable: for example, on a recent project we made the electrical connections early in the construction process in order to power the site (from the cranes to machinery) entirely from electric rather than relying on diesel generators. As part of CPW’s recently-formed Innovations team, I am always on the look-out for the latest low-carbon technologies. I’m sure you can imagine my excitement when I saw JCB’s hydrogen prototypes! Running on hydrogen rather than fuel cell, 90% of the engine is a replica of that a diesel vehicle, offering one potential solution to slash on-site emissions once hydrogen is made readily available.

Whole Life Carbon was once again raised in today’s events and I was keen to attend the discussion run by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Set up just over a decade ago, the foundation has been a key promoter of the Circular Economy, something CPW have been helping clients with as part of our Net Zero Carbon works. It was particularly interesting to learn about this in the context of the food and transport sectors, and how buildings can be designed to suit sustainable transport methods.

Meanwhile, in the Blue Zone the UKGBC launched their Whole Life Carbon Roadmap. This cross-industry report outlines the carbon footprint for the UK’s built environment, the Net Zero Carbon trajectory to 2050 and contains policy recommendations to aid in achieving this target.

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