Beyond Net Zero: The embodied carbon of office partitions

The future of shared workspaces seemed unstable (maybe even non-existent) four years ago, but more recently, companies have placed a renewed emphasis on the creativity, productivity, and sociability that offices can bring. In doing so, they have a placed a parallel, complementary focus on sustainability and wellbeing in the workplace. In 2024, and in light of this, the Workplace Futures Group commissioned us to assess the hidden carbon cost and acoustic performance of office partitions – the dividers used to segment areas and create privacy in the workplace. It was a timely study, with its unprecedented focus on embodied carbon. The new UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard underlines the importance of choosing fit-out materials based upon their carbon impact. It’s also widely recognised that significant fabric improvements are needed to reach higher levels of long-term asset performance.

The Office Partition Study provides a resource for selecting office partition materials that offer the best balance of low carbon and high acoustic performance, enabling high performance to be achieved at the lowest carbon cost.
 

We investigated the performance of a range of internal wall types with respect to acoustics (critical to productivity and comfort in the workplace), embodied carbon, fire safety, and cost. 
The build-ups selected for the study were standard, off-the-shelf partitions with a known acoustic rating, and some non-standard partitions that were analysed by our Acoustics team.

We carried out the embodied carbon study in line with the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment, and included lifecycle stages A1-A4, B4, and C1-C4. The sites included in the study were London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol, with transportation methods and factory locations determined for all products. 
The build-ups were divided as follows:

• Low acoustic performance, 43-49dB
• Medium acoustic performance, 52-54dB
• High acoustic performance, +55dB
• A range of board manufacturers, i.e. British Gypsum, Fermacell and Siniat

A number of options were given in the study to try and capture the impact of variations upon the final order of carbon performance. Among the options considered were transport sensitivity, galvanised steel carbon factor, build-ups including a 2mm skim, and biogenic carbon capture. 
 

Some surprises emerged from the study. We found that the transportation of partitions has a proportionally large embodied carbon impact. We had assumed, for example, that clayboard would be low in embodied carbon due to its material make-up, but discovered that it’s currently typically manufactured in central Europe, and therefore the embodied carbon associated with transporting it dominates at around 40%. This is in contrast to the transportation of materials produced locally in the UK, which generally accounts for just 5% of their total carbon emissions. The study also revealed that the carbon impact of steel is the second most significant behind plasterboard, typically comprising 25-40% of the upfront carbon, but with a variation of around 24% for galvanised steel.

_{The Workplace Futures Group have made the full Partitions Study available to view online.}