Levitt Bernstein explains its Essex Embodied Carbon Policy Study

As head of sustainability, Clare Murray is responsible for improving the environmental performance of Levitt Bernstein’s work. Credit: Levitt Bernstein

Few architects can say they really know how much embodied carbon is locked up in the buildings they design. They will be aware that timber has lower embodied carbon than brick, or that some materials have a better end-of-life scenario than others. But we now urgently need to cut the amount of embodied carbon in developments to meet the UK’s net zero commitments. In addition, local authorities are starting to set limits, targets or benchmarks, and require calculations, through the planning process.

Essex County Council recently commissioned us to carry out an evidence base for planning policy, which has now been made available for all local authorities in Essex to use when setting policy. Among the questions posed were, how do we know exactly where to set the limits, and how much more does it cost to use low embodied carbon materials? The industry has become much more familiar with reducing operational energy in the last couple of years, but when it comes to embodied carbon, there are still big challenges around the terminology – upfront, lifecycle, whole life, circular economy and so on – and even bigger ones around the quantification of materials, and the carbon data for every material and mechanical system.

Rania Kapitani has been involved in the development of supporting guidance for the delivery of net zero design for local authorities. Credit: Levitt Bernstein

As part of the Essex Embodied Carbon Policy Study, we calculated and costed the upfront and lifecycle carbon of three low-rise house types using different construction techniques. The study demonstrates how traditional construction fares against low carbon options, giving plan makers and architects a good understanding of how their own designs might compare. It also serves as a handy embodied carbon explainer, investigating likely variations in upfront embodied carbon between data sources and material types.

The study was a collaborative project with Etude, Hawkins\Brown, Introba and Currie & Brown, and can be downloaded from the Research & Writing section of our website. With their help, we feel that it gives a full and revealing picture of how design decisions can have a positive impact in reducing embodied carbon emissions for a wide range of projects.

Clare Murray is head of sustainability and Rania Kapitani is a sustainability designer, both at Levitt Bernstein