25 July 2024
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The building and construction sector is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases globally. In 2023, the UN Environment Programme publication Building Materials And The Climate: Constructing A New Future reported this to be 37% of global emissions.

In response to this, legislation is being put in place to drive down carbon emissions through the building’s life cycle. There is industry and political support in the UK for a Part Z amendment to the Building Regulations to regulate embodied carbon (see Part Z: An industry-proposed amendment to UK Building Regulations 2010). Planning policies are being set at the local authority level that mandate whole-life carbon (WLC) assessments (see the Environmental Audit Committee report Building to net zero: costing carbon in construction). Furthermore, large companies are now required to publish environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports (see ESG reporting: a catalyst for change on the PwC website). Carbon accounting has begun to sit alongside financial accounting for companies with significant business in Europe.

At NBS, and across our parent group Byggfakta, acting on sustainability is a strategic priority. Our own 2023 ESG report (Year-end report January-December 2023) states: ‘Our sustainability vision entails leveraging our position as the leading software and information company within the construction industry to actively support the sector’s response to the climate emergency.’

We will develop our content and our functionality to help the industry respond to the climate emergency and make decisions that drive down carbon emissions in the buildings they refurbish and build.

To support our sustainability drive, NBS is now a carbon-neutral business, with PAS 2060 certification accredited by a third-party UKAS assessor (see Sustainability with NBS). This article summarizes some of our recent developments and our future plans.

1. Early stage

As each stage of a project progresses, there is less and less opportunity to make a significant difference in terms of environmental impact. At the strategic stage of a project, a client/ design team may make a decision to refurbish an existing building over demolishing and building new – a decision that would have a major impact. At the concept design stage, decisions on structural frame, wall and roof constructions will have a significant impact. However, once a project has reached its technical design stage, it is still possible to make a positive impact through specifying more sustainable systems and products.

With this in mind, at NBS, we have partnered with the Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) to deliver information to specifiers indicating the relative environmental impact of typical constructions. These indicators include embodied carbon, operational carbon and life expectancy. This allows designers to make decisions from the concept design stage with environmental impact in mind. In Figure 1 below, these indicators can be seen for various roof covering options.

Figure 1 – Benchmark costs delivered by NBS and BCIS for early-stage design

2. Specifying for sustainable outcomes

Recently, we published our NBS Sustainable Specification Guides. These look at considerations, structured to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, that can be taken into account on projects. Examples include specification for improved daylighting, connected transport, biodiversity and reduced carbon emissions. References are also included to specific systems – from heat pumps to insulation systems and rainwater harvesting systems – can be found within NBS content.

Once the elements and systems within a building design are fixed, then environmental impact can be reduced further through including minimum sustainability standards in the performance requirements of generic specifications. For example, when specifying a product, what are the maximum or minimum numeric values around sustainability criteria, and what environmental certification is required from the manufacturer? Figure 2 below shows an NBS specification clause that has been edited to include requirements around both the quality of the product’s performance and its sustainability credentials.

Figure 2 – Specifying generically to achieve both performance and sustainability requirements

3. Specifying manufacturer products

When researching what sustainability values are achievable on the market, or when specifying by manufacturer and product reference, then NBS Source is an important resource that can be used by project teams. Since 2023, we have been asking all of the 1,200 manufacturers that are part of Source to provide sustainability metrics and certification for the products that they list. Figures 3 and 4 below demonstrate the user workflow when working with this enhanced data. First, within a particular category, manufacturer products can be filtered by their sustainability credentials. These include filters such as whether a product has an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and what the minimum or maximum values for recycled content percentage are for embodied carbon. Second, once a set of shortlisted products has been assembled, then comparisons can be made using this standardized data.

Figure 3 – Filtering products by numerical sustainability values
Figure 4 – Comparing products from different manufacturers before specifying

Concluding this workflow, once the specifier has found a product that meets both the project’s technical performance requirements and the sustainability requirements, then this product can be added to the specification with a single click.

4. What next?

Real progress has been made at NBS in terms of helping specifiers deliver sustainable outcomes on their projects, and we pledge to do more in this area:

  • We will deliver more well-structured sustainability data, with respect to manufacturers’ products, that is backed up by third-party certification. Examples of additional data will include information such as factory locations to allow for further carbon calculations, such as ‘transport to site’. Data around the expected life of products will be included to assist in life cycle assessments.
  • Once a set of products has been listed – either as a collection in NBS Source or included within a project specification in NBS Chorus – we will make it easier to generate reports from this data. We see the specification as being more than a contractual tender document; it is a rich source of information that can be queried for multiple purposes.
  • We also have the intention to combine approximate quantities from 3D models with the systems, products and materials in the NBS specification to allow customers to produce whole-life carbon assessments.

Design practices are already designing in 3D and linking digital objects to the specification for annotation and scheduling purposes. Now is the time to provide further benefit through smarter use of this data to deliver more sustainable projects.

More information