BCIS executive director calls for action on breakthrough carbon report

BCIS’s executive director, James Fiske, has called for regulatory and industry action on suggestions made in a new government report.

Produced by engineering consultant AECOM, the report was commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to understand the technical, practical and economic impacts of measuring and reducing embodied carbon in new buildings.

It provides recommendations for overcoming these impacts, which include supporting manufacturers to develop carbon data, establishing a national carbon dataset and upskilling the construction industry in whole life carbon assessing.

Fiske, who also serves as steering group chair for the Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD), said: ‘The government has a golden opportunity on the table. Greater data visibility and access will go a long way to supporting a national carbon data source, but it must be strengthened by standardising how carbon assessments are undertaken and by whom.

‘The answer is right under its nose. Quantity surveyors, as qualified, regulated measurement experts are a natural fit to carry out carbon assessments. They undertake similar tasks in estimation and cost control work and would need minimal upskilling or time to fulfil this new duty.

‘Realising this requires the government to standardise tools that integrate cost and carbon assessment capabilities to improve the efficiency of assessments.’

Fiske’s asks follow a major update to the BECD that arrived within days of the report’s release.

New improvements include the cleansing and expansion of its product data library.

For the first time, the library features all data from the latest version of the Inventory of Carbon and Energy – an internationally-used embodied carbon database for materials.

Fiske added: ‘The BECD refresh is incredibly timely. Coupled with the report’s recommendations, it’s a clear signal to the government to form a national carbon dataset.

‘As a newly updated, pan-industry initiative, BECD provides the essential building blocks for this. But as the report states, it’s still in its youth.

‘What’s needed now is government investment in underlying data and a continued cross-industry effort to collect carbon data beyond that captured by Environmental Product Declarations.’

A recommendation to help carbon tools generate standardised carbon assessments was also proposed in the report.

Fiske said BCIS Life Cycle Evaluator, a tool that produces cost and carbon assessments at the same time, is well-placed to set an industry standard.

The tool has recently been updated to draw from the improved BECD product library. It has also benefitted from a refresh to the materials cost data that form the building blocks of its components.

‘The way forward on carbon assessing comprises a four-step pathway: qualified, trained professionals, using high-quality data, and the right tools, in line with a standardised methodology,’ Fiske added.

‘I’ve no doubt the result will be game-changing for emissions reduction. As the report has shown, the government cannot rely on the Future Homes Standard alone to achieve decarbonisation.’

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