Whole life carbon and embodied carbon

Whole life carbon leaders

Total of 2 people

Kiru Balson

Woman with glasses wearing a white shirt

MSc MCIAT
Principal Sustainability Consultant
Partner

Hero Bennett

MSci MPhil MCIOB CEnv
Director, Sustainability
Partner

About whole life carbon

Max Fordham’s whole life carbon team is truly multidisciplinary, with backgrounds that range from ‘traditional’ mechanical and electrical engineering to architecture, structural engineering, and Passivhaus design. With the thorough understanding of the whole building’s design and construction that such a range of expertise brings, we not only provide the robust and detailed embodied carbon modelling required for BREEAM certification and planning compliance, but also the strategic upfront advice and optioneering that helps result in buildings that are truly low carbon.

Simply put, the whole life carbon equation is operational carbon + embodied carbon. Operational carbon is associated with a building’s actual energy and water use: its measurement and reduction through good building services design or decarbonisation is a well-established process. Embodied carbon is more nebulous: it is the carbon tied up in a building’s construction materials (steel, concrete, plastic, timber, brick) and associated construction processes. This is challenging to measure and requires collaboration from the whole team.

Working closely with the client and design team, our consultants set embodied carbon targets and measurement strategies; advise on the design decisions – such as material selection, façade design, massing, fit-out, and MEP strategies – that will have the biggest embodied carbon impacts; advise on circular economy strategies; and provide invaluable data-driven input into early-stage decisions – such as retrofit versus demolition – that can have wide-ranging and far-reaching impacts on a project’s long term financial and carbon costs.

For us, whole life carbon considerations are not a constraint – they’re an opportunity to deliver truly sustainable buildings.

Case studies

Total of 4 projects

The Rylands Building

We carried out an embodied carbon assessment and are providing circular economy consultancy on this deep retrofit of a 1930s department store into a net zero carbon mixed use development. Avoided carbon emissions from reuse on-site and off-site equates to approximately 1.5 years of equivalent emissions from a typical new build office building of a similar size.

11 Belgrave Road

We are leading this major redevelopment's aspiration to be net zero carbon in both construction and operation, and to surpass the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge target by 38%. The retention of a significant portion of the existing concrete frame of the building, as well as efforts to reduce environmental impact throughout the project, have resulted in predicted embodied carbon emissions of 466kg CO₂ per m² for the project, with 324kg CO₂ per m² for the refurbished areas – beneath the LETI target of 350 kg CO₂ per m².

Xylo

A large red brick building next to a busy main road in a sunny day

We have pioneered the building services engineering and energy performance and undertaken the whole lifecycle carbon modelling on this full timber frame, net zero carbon office building to surpass RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge and the GLA planning targets. This is being achieved through our net zero carbon service using the UKGBC Net Zero Carbon framework. The use of low-carbon materials and circular economy principles for the façade and interiors will exceed GLA and Camden policy targets for sustainability and energy efficiency, with the dry nature of the construction allowing for future deconstruction and re-use with minimal wastage.

Skyscanner HQ

Interior of contemporary office with blue walls and green plants

We provided net zero carbon services for the fit-out for a new headquarters for global metasearch engine and travel agency, Skycanner. The 30,000 sq ft space provides the company’s 300+ London staff with a flexible and multi-functional office that aims to treads lightly upon the environment. The design incorporates several low embodied carbon approaches including low-carbon timber floors in common spaces, timber lockers and reclaimed raised access floors. A whole life carbon assessment has been undertaken to quantify the building’s embodied carbon emissions, which shows that the calculated as-built upfront embodied carbon emissions is 143 kgCO₂e/m² [A1-A5], which is less than the LETI modified 2025 interim design target of 190 kgCO₂e/m² [A1-A5]. An operational energy strategy has been put in place to achieve the target of 70 kWh/m²/yr (RIBA 2025) or 45 kWh/m²/yr (RIBA 2030). Working with the client, we will review energy use on a quarterly basis for the first year to identify loads that can be reduced through fine-tuning of controls or changing the activity of building’s users. A plan has been put in place to optimise energy usage now the building is in use.

Related journal entries

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Footprint+ 2024: Xylo

9 May 2024
London

All services

All buildings should be comfortable and a pleasure to be in: warm, well-lit, well-ventilated, well-used, and well-loved. Our mechanical and electrical engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, daylight, and lighting design services can help ensure just that. We maximise passive measures such as natural ventilation and daylighting, seamlessly dovetailing our designs with the building’s own form and architecture to result in simple, low-energy, and low-cost building services.
In the face of an increasingly urgent climate emergency, it’s crucial that buildings consume as little energy as possible in their operation. Low energy, low carbon, and low operational costs are our watchwords when it comes to designing new buildings or retrofitting existing ones. We help our clients build sustainability goals into masterplans or early-stage feasibility studies, decarbonise existing estates, and optimise how a building performs against its targets for sustainability and user comfort.
Meeting net zero carbon targets and minimising a building’s impact on the environment means reducing embodied carbon – the carbon tied up in the materials like steel, concrete, and plastic that go into a building’s construction and services design – as much as operational carbon (the carbon a building produces in its heating, cooling, and lighting). We facilitate material reuse with circular economy strategies, steer low embodied carbon design from the earliest project stages with whole life carbon assessments, and offer advice on planning and compliance, all helping to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.