Embodied Carbon Tool: Building Magazine

Published on 22-11-2011 by Dr Paul Beckett

Brighton and Hove Council have made it a requirement that all planning applications for new-build residential projects in the city include embodied carbon data.  This is provided by developers when they complete the Council’s online Sustainability checklist.

A simplified version of Phlorum’s embodied carbon tool has been incorporated into the checklist to produce a broad calculation of the embodied carbon in proposed developments. The purpose at this stage is to monitor embodied carbon levels and raise awareness of its importance, and the Council are looking to expand upon this in the future.
So far it is mainly academic bodies that are interested in embodied carbon. But, as the burden of environmental stewardship begins to rest more heavily upon the shoulders of Local Authorities, this could well change very quickly, according to Francesca Iliffe, Sustainability Officer at Brighton & Hove Council, in a recent interview with Building Magazine.