The carbon conversation: how to secure buy-in from stakeholders

As the UK construction sector grapples with rising emissions, BCIS executive director, James Fiske, examines why securing stakeholder buy-in for whole life carbon assessments can drive meaningful change. 

The carbon conversation: how to secure buy-in from stakeholders

As challenges go, national decarbonisation feels on a level with swimming the English Channel or running ultra marathons back-to-back across the Sahara Desert – gruelling, planning-intensive, and requiring collaboration between multiple specialists behind-the-scenes.

Similar to extreme endurance feats, hitting net zero by 2050 in the UK often feels like an uphill battle with many setbacks and a moving finish line.

In the built environment specifically, the delay on a whole life carbon mandate (which looks set to continue after October’s Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan) and the absence of government investment in the tools needed to improve carbon reporting, spring to mind.

But who’s ever climbed Mount Everest without persevering against unfavourable conditions?

Built environment professionals and businesses still have a responsibility to move things forward and securing stakeholder buy-in for whole life carbon assessments (WLCAs) is a good place to start.

Why now?

Ahead of regulatory change to standardise the measurement and reduction of whole life carbon in new building work, engaging clients and funders with WLCAs might feel premature.

This is not the case.

Including WLCAs in early-stage discussions can help to set realistic carbon reduction targets for projects and ensure carbon reductions are part of budget management from the outset – not something that derails it later on.

Upping stakeholder engagement in WLCAs now will also help to foster a more positive and active culture around decarbonisation, strengthen carbon accountability, and streamline the integration of cost and carbon decision-making.

This should increase the number of WLCAs being undertaken which will improve the availability of carbon data and benchmarking opportunities to help drive down emissions in future projects.

And achieving this is a matter of urgency.

New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published in October 2025 show the UK construction sector’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to creep up, despite a year-on-year fall in the national level.

In 2024, the construction sector was responsible for more than 11 million tonnes of scope 1 GHG emissions (those from sources that residents and registered businesses in the UK own or directly control).

This was a rise of almost one-third (30.3%) on the level recorded in 1994 – the third highest 30-year increase of all sectors in 2024 behind real estate activities and accommodation and food services.

On a wider scale, such emissions growth is driving us closer to catastrophic climate tipping points. According to one report⁽¹⁾ from 160 scientists published earlier in October, we’ve now passed the first of these and are also at significant risk of reaching the collapse of major ocean currents and the loss of ice sheets.

It’s widely recognised that the built environment is a huge contributor of emissions worldwide, but the onus is often placed on managing operational carbon alone.

This is not enough, and in the absence of regulatory direction, the sector must enlighten more stakeholders with whole life carbon thinking.

The question is, how?

Getting stakeholders on board

Making WLCAs attractive to clients and funders comes down to effective communication.

WLCAs can offer myriad cost and compliance benefits and it’s important these are showcased to stakeholders.

This might involve quantity surveyors or cost consultants presenting real-world projects to stakeholders where carbon data was used to unlock savings or secure funding approval.

More specifically, this also might include highlighting the long-term cost-efficiency of a low-carbon design and explaining how this could aid compliance with future regulation (i.e. Future Homes Standard).

There is a common preconception among client teams that low-carbon buildings will incur more costs and while this is not unfounded, it’s not automatically true of every green project.

Built environment professionals and businesses need to shift this narrative by emphasising how measuring and reducing a project’s whole life carbon can cut costs.

This could be the building’s running costs if a heat pump or renewable energy sources are implemented or avoiding the cost of future retrofit if the building meets new government standards ahead of their enforcement.

The bottom line of pitching a WLCA to stakeholders is ultimately about proving why it’s a solution to their specific needs – be that cost certainty, satisfying local planning requirements or hitting ESG commitments.

Early carbon discussions are also an opportunity to encourage collaboration and convince stakeholders of the important role their project’s carbon data can play in improving industry standards.

Each project that adopts a WLCA today ultimately brings us closer to a sector where carbon is treated with the same weight as cost and quality.

The real challenge now is not why low-carbon buildings should be constructed but how clients and funders can be brought on the decarbonisation journey.

More on this can be explored in the latest BCIS carbon crib sheets here.

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^{(1) Global Tipping Points – Resources – here}