Consumption-based carbon emissions "have not been taken into consideration" by architects

Creating developments that encourage inhabitants to reduce their consumption is the next frontier for low-carbon design, according to Hélène Chartier of sustainable urbanism network C40 Cities.

Chartier said that "a change of mindset" is required to ensure that architects look beyond the carbon footprint of their buildings and also consider emissions generated by the lifestyles of building users.

"As a designer, they don't just build a box," Chartier said during a Dezeen talk about carbon held at Dutch Design Week last week. "They build a place where people live. The design can really empower people to live a more sustainable life and make lower-carbon choices in their daily lives".

Consumption-based emissions "a catastrophe"

Consumption-based emissions are those produced by the consumption of goods and services by building users and include emissions from transport, food, clothing and other goods.

These are "a catastrophe," said Chartier, who is head of zero-carbon development at C40 Cities, a network that helps the world's biggest cities with their decarbonisation goals.

"If we take the city of Copenhagen, which is one of the most ambitious cities in terms of carbon-neutrality objectives and everything, and add the consumption-based emissions today, they are just getting worse and worse," she said.

Consumption-based emissions come on top of the lifecycle emissions of a building itself.

Hélène Chartier made the comments during a Dezeen talk at Dutch Design Week (above and top image)

While operational carbon (emissions caused by a building's use) is widely understood and embodied carbon (emissions caused by the construction supply chain) is becoming better known, consumption-based emissions remain a blind spot, Chartier said.

"Consumption-based emissions are something that has been not taken into consideration enough when they do the carbon calculations," she said.

"When a city or nation says it will be carbon neutral, they totally avoid thinking about all of the consumption of the people, which is a very large problem."

[

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UK industry group calls for new rules to force architects to calculate embodied carbon emissions

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Consumption-based emissions can be reduced by encouraging people to walk, cycle or use public transport and by reducing parking provision to discourage car use.

Other moves include encouraging local food networks and local sourcing of goods and materials, sharing facilities including laundries and tools, and prioritising low-carbon businesses such as restaurants and shops.

Two-thirds of consumption-based emissions come from outside cities

A 2018 report by C40 Cities found that two-thirds of consumption-based emissions come from outside the city's boundaries.

"Cities rely heavily on the supply of goods and services from outside their physical boundaries," said the report, which was based on a study of 79 cities within the C40 Cities network.

"The results of this study show that the GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions associated with these supply chains are significant, particularly for C40 cities in Europe, North America and Oceania."

"Over 70 per cent of consumption-based GHG emissions come from utilities and housing, capital, transportation, food supply and government services," it said.

[

Read:

Governments have done "very little" to address climate change says head of zero-carbon development at global cities network

](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/07/13/carbon-government-address-climate-change-helene-chartier/)

"I think today when a city or nation says they are they are going to be carbon-neutral by 2030 or 2050, they basically consider the emission in their producing in their territory," and therefore overlooking consumption-based emissions, Chartier said.

Chartier was one of three panellists at the Dutch Design Week talk, speaking alongside Cambridge University biomaterials researcher Darshil Shah and designer Teresa van Dongen.

The talk, called Good Design for a Bad World: Carbon, explored ways that architects and designers can help remove carbon from the atmosphere.

The session was the latest in the ongoing series of Good Design for a Bad World talks organised by Dezeen and Dutch Design Week.

It built on knowledge gained during Dezeen's Carbon Revolution editorial series, which explored how atmospheric carbon can be captured and put to use on earth.

Cities are "major contributors" of emission

While the built environment is responsible for around 40 per cent of global emissions, cities account for between 50 and 60 per cent of all emissions when additional factors including consumption-based emissions are taken into account, Chartier said.

"Cites are really the major contributors of emissions," she said. "A new city the size of New York is built every month in the world."

[

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"Largest wooden building in Iceland" to occupy landfill site in Reykjavík

](https://www.dezeen.com/2021/10/22/living-landscape-largest-wooden-building-iceland/)

"We know that today that 55 per cent of the world's population is living in cities and it will grow to 70 per cent by 2050. So the way we design and build our cities is going to make a huge difference," Chartier added.

Chartier oversees C40 Cities' Reinventing Cities competition, which will see 49 experimental low-carbon developments built in 19 different cities.

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Dezeen pledges to become a net-zero business by 2025

To conclude our carbon revolution series, Dezeen is today committing to becoming a net-zero business within four years.

We intend to become net-zero by 2025, which is 25 years ahead of the 2050 deadline set by the Paris Agreement.

We'll be joining a small but growing band of companies in the architecture and design sector that have pledged to achieve net-zero emissions.

These include Danish furniture brand Takt, Swedish cosmetics brand Forgo plus a handful of UK architects that have joined RIBA's climate challenge.

This pledge is the result of months of work following the realisation back in February that our business has a huge carbon footprint. Since then, we've been learning about emissions and what to do about them. Our carbon revolution series emerged directly from this research.

We have adopted the strict definition of "net-zero" as set out in the lexicon provided by the UN's Race to Zero campaign.

According to this definition, net-zero is achieved when "an actor reduces its emissions following science-based pathways, with any remaining GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions attributable to that actor being fully neutralized by like-for-like removals (eg permanent removals for fossil carbon emissions) exclusively claimed by that actor, either within the value chain or through purchase of valid offset credits."

Simply put, this means that we will first reduce emissions caused by Dezeen itself, by our supply chain and by our customers to the lowest possible level.

Then, any emissions we can't eliminate will be offset using schemes that remove carbon from the atmosphere. We will not use offsetting schemes that defer or avoid additional emissions.

We have already taken a number of steps towards our goal and aim to take further action as set out below.

Research

The first part of our journey has been to learn about carbon emissions and identify best-practice ways of eliminating them that are relevant to our business. As a high-profile media platform, we have been fortunate to be able to secure interviews with key players. We have shared this research as a series of articles in our carbon revolution series.

Adopt Race to Zero principles

Dezeen has adopted the definitions and principles of the UN's Race to Zero campaign. The broad consensus among experts we've spoken to is that this is the benchmark pathway to eliminating emissions. However, the timeframe is extremely long, with the net-zero deadline almost thirty years away, in 2050. That's why we've decided to act more quickly.

Race to Zero helps companies and organisations achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which are to reduce emissions by half by 2030 and to reach net-zero by 2050 at the latest. This needs to be done in order for the world to have a chance of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

To comply with the Race to Zero, companies must reduce emissions as far as possible across all three scopes (see the Dezeen guide to carbon for more details of Scopes 1, 2 and 3). Any remaining emissions must be offset using credible schemes that remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Join SME Climate Hub

We have signed up to SME Climate Hub, a platform that helps small and medium businesses meet the objectives of the Race to Zero campaign. This appears to be the most credible of all the many platforms that offer help with decarbonisation as well as being closely aligned with Race to Zero.

We aim to exceed the SME Climate Hub's timeline of commitments, which involves halving emissions before 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions before 2050. We will disclose our progress on a yearly basis.

Join Tech Zero

We have also signed up to Tech Zero, a UK platform that is tailored to helping digital businesses achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. The platform is advising us on the next steps we should take to achieve net-zero emissions.

Switch to renewable energy, including remote workers

The Dezeen office is 100 per cent powered by renewable electricity. We made the switch last year, meaning that we have eliminated our Scope 2 emissions, which are those generated by purchased power. This is the single easiest step anyone can take to reduce their carbon footprint.

Like many companies, Dezeen has made a significant shift to remote working as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this does not necessarily lead to a reduction in emissions, as many companies believe and as Taylor Francis of decarbonisation platform Watershed explained in an interview conducted as part of our carbon revolution series.

To counter this, we have provided financial incentives for our staff to switch to renewable energy in their homes.

Audit our supply chain

Dezeen's Scope 3 emissions are hard to determine since we work with dozens of suppliers who provide everything from servers to newsletter solutions and social-media services. We have contacted all our providers to ask them about their carbon reduction policies. Many of them don't have one.

Over the next four years, we will work with our supply chain to identify emissions and negate them through carbon removal programmes. We will seek alternative suppliers if we feel our providers aren't doing enough in this area.

Eliminate emissions from www.dezeen.com starting this year

Of all our Scope 3 emissions, those generated by our website are the largest as well as being the easiest to identify and reduce since while we don't own the servers that power www.dezeen.com, we can monitor their performance.

We commissioned EcoPing to calculate the carbon footprint of our site. EcoPing started us on our carbon-reduction journey earlier this year when it called us out on the appallingly high energy consumption of our site.

Since then, we've been working with Ecoping's Dryden Williams to better understand why Dezeen is so energy-intensive. Dryden estimates the current carbon footprint of Dezeen to be around 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per year.

We have already changed the way we compress images, resulting in a 15 per cent reduction in energy use. We have identified a range of further measures we can take over the coming months to reduce energy consumption by a further 10 to 20 per cent.

Our target is a 50 per cent reduction by the end of the year. In anticipation that we can make these savings, we will offset 1,000 tonnes of CO2 using nori.com.

Create a carbon removal portfolio

It will take us a while to fully understand our Scope 3 emissions but we're not going to wait until we have a concrete figure for our carbon footprint before we start working to eliminate it.

By the end of the year, we will establish a portfolio of carbon removal schemes that we pay to capture atmospheric carbon on our behalf to cover the rest of our Scope 3 emissions.

We will use providers that have been audited by the Shopify Sustainability Fund. These include nori.com, with whom we are already offsetting our website emissions (see above). We will grow our portfolio over the coming years to ensure we are net-zero by 2025.

Take the industry with us

Our final ambition is to take the architecture and design sector with us. We want to help the industry understand the issues and assist companies and individual readers in their own decarbonisation efforts. That way, our readers can in turn help persuade their clients of the need to eliminate emissions.

We will highlight exemplary initiatives, we will ask awkward questions when we suspect carbon washing is taking place and we will be proactive in keeping the topic on the global agenda.

Our carbon revolution series, which features 60 interviews, news stories and features that have together generated over 500,000 page views, ends today with this commitment. But the real carbon revolution, which will see the global economy become net-zero by 2050, has only just begun.

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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#carbonrevolution #all #news #dezeen #climatechange

"Carbon washing is the new greenwashing"

The global push to reduce atmospheric carbon is being compromised by confusing terminology and misleading claims, argues Dezeen founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs.

Carbon washing is the new greenwashing. Growing alarm about climate change has triggered a rise in the number of companies making questionable claims that they are addressing the issue.

Phrases such as "climate neutral", "carbon negative", "net-zero" and "offsetting" are casually bandied around, replacing terms such as "biodegradable", "compostable", "circular" and "ocean plastic", which were the hot bullshit buzzwords a couple of years ago.

Today, many companies appear to have switched bandwagons, swapping their plastic angst for climate concern. The new carbon jargon is designed to give the impression that new buildings and products make no contribution to atmospheric carbon, or even help reduce it.

Companies are simply taking advantage of vague and often meaningless terminology

The claims rarely stand up to scrutiny. Most often, companies are simply taking advantage of vague and often meaningless terminology and, knowingly or unknowingly, misleading the public.

Last month Air Co, the brand that created "carbon-negative" vodka in 2019 (pictured above), launched "the world’s first and only carbon-negative hand sanitiser made from technology that actually reverses climate change by mimicking photosynthesis".

The company claims to use carbon dioxide captured from the air to make the alcohol that is the base of its sanitiser. But, assuming the technology is for real, the product can only be carbon-negative if it remains in the bottle forever.

As soon as you use the sanitiser, you release the CO2 again. The same is true of the vodka: as soon as you drink it, you free the carbon.

Earlier this month, Associated Architects claimed its proposed Curzon Wharf project in Birmingham featured net-zero skyscrapers.

The firm later backtracked and claimed they would be net-zero in terms of operational carbon (carbon emitted during the building's use), but not embodied carbon (emissions caused by the construction process and materials supply chain).

But this means the project is not net-zero at all, since net-zero covers the entire lifecycle of a building, including embodied carbon, which accounts for around half the average project's carbon footprint.

More precise terminology is needed

These are just two examples of the many spurious claims that have landed in our inboxes recently.

More precise terminology is needed. The emerging carbontech sector, which Dezeen has covered extensively in its carbon revolution series, has settled on "net-zero" as the only game in town when it comes to decarbonising.

Although there is not (yet) an officially agreed definition of net-zero, it is widely understood to mean that there are no net contributions to atmospheric carbon across the entire lifecycle of a product, building or enterprise. For a building, that means both the embodied carbon and the operational carbon.

Offsetting often involves dubious transactions

All these emissions must add up to zero to count as net-zero. Since eliminating embodied carbon emissions is extremely hard, you are allowed to make up the difference via offsetting schemes that actively remove carbon from the atmosphere.

But "offsetting" is a widely abused term. It has become a get-out-of-jail card that can be played to make even the most polluting enterprise appear climate-friendly.

Offsetting often involves dubious transactions such as paying someone else to make fewer emissions than they would have otherwise, or getting someone to promise not to cut down a forest.

It also involves assuming that a forest used for offsets will never fall victim to a wildfire, although that is now happening with increasing regularity in the USA (this is one reason why many carbontech figures say that relying on tree-planting for carbon sequestration "doesn't make sense").

Google, which claims to have been carbon neutral since 2007 and to have eliminated its entire carbon legacy, achieves this by using offsets that, it claims, compensate for the company's emissions. In fact, they do not.

The tech giant's offsetting portfolio includes projects that capture methane from agriculture and landfill sites. This merely prevents more greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere, rather than undoing the emissions the company has already caused. However, since some of the captured methane is burned to produce energy, yet more CO2 is released into the atmosphere as part of the offsetting scheme.

The whole concept of carbon neutrality is a form of carbon washing

But Google's strategy aligns with the international PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality. This allows companies to claim they are carbon-neutral if they use offsets or carbon credits even if those schemes do not actually negate the emissions they are supposed to be offsetting.

This means that the whole concept of carbon neutrality is a form of carbon washing.

Instead of "offsetting", the carbontech crowd prefers the term "carbon removal". This takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere via methods including soil sequestration and direct air capture. The CO2 is then stored permanently on earth (a process known as carbon capture and storage or CCS) or puts it to use in products such as building materials (carbon capture and utilisation or CCU).

But even this terminology is being abused by the oil and gas industry, which has come up with a wheeze called carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS). This seemingly carbon-friendly buzzword is a smokescreen for enhanced oil recovery, which involves pumping CO2 into depleted oil reserves in order to squeeze out the last, hard-to-reach deposits of fossil fuels.

The fossil industry gets away with this partly because the terminology around carbon is hopelessly confusing (although our guide to carbon might help). In its lexicon, the UN's Race to Zero initiative defines a bewildering range of seemingly overlapping terms including net-zero, absolute zero, climate positive and net negative (which mean the same thing), offsetting, insetting and more.

With the vital Cop26 climate conference fast approaching, the climate industry needs to get its act together and give people simpler guidelines to follow.

But confusing terminology is no excuse for inaction or carbon washing. The 2015 Paris Agreement sets out clear targets for the world: halve emissions by 2030 and become net-zero by 2050 in order to have a chance of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

This is something everyone has to do, including all the laggardly architects that have so far failed to sign up to Race to Zero or snubbed the RIBA's climate initiative.

These firms, along with everyone else, could start by focusing on just two buzzwords if they want their climate stance to be taken seriously: strive for net-zero carbon and use carbon removal rather than offsetting to help you get there.

Marcus Fairs is founder and editor-in-chief of Dezeen.

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

The post "Carbon washing is the new greenwashing" appeared first on Dezeen.

#carbonrevolution #all #architecture #design #opinion #climatechange

Carbon neutrality "still allows for carbon emissions" says Google sustainability lead

Google continues to emit greenhouse gases despite claiming to be carbon neutral, Dezeen has learned.

The tech giant, which says it has been carbon neutral since 2007 and claims to have eliminated its entire carbon legacy, has emitted around 20 million tonnes of carbon in that period.

Yet it has adopted a definition of carbon neutrality that allows it to claim its carbon footprint is zero while remaining an ongoing contributor to atmospheric carbon.

"Carbon neutrality still allows you to emit"

"Our legacy on carbon dates back to 2007 when we were the first major company to achieve carbon neutrality, and that was just nine years after we were founded," said Robin Bass, real estate and workplace services sustainability programs lead at Google.

"We are carbon neutral in terms of purchasing renewable energy to offset all of our consumption and eliminating our legacy carbon, which is also part of our strategy."

Top: "Dragonscale" solar panels on Google's Mountain View building. Above: Photovoltaics and geothermal piles will provide some of the power for Google's new HQ

However, Bass admitted that the approach meant that the company continues to emit CO2 and that its offsetting programme does not compensate for its emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

"Carbon neutrality still allows for carbon emissions," she told Dezeen. "People are using a lot of different terms and some of them mean different things.

"The way that I think about it is that carbon neutrality still allows you to emit," she continued. "You can still be producing carbon, you can still be connected to a grid that is burning coal or some fossil fuel."

"And as long as you offset that by purchasing renewable energy somewhere, you can still achieve carbon neutrality."

Offsetting is a "fallacy"

Google's stance aligns with the international PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality. This allows companies to claim they are carbon neutral if they use offsets or carbon credits.

However, offsets that prevent additional CO2 from reaching the atmosphere, for example by buying renewable power or capturing emissions from factories, do not negate the emissions that have already been made.

Robin Bass, real estate and workplace services sustainability programs lead at Google

Unlike net-zero, which is a far more demanding standard that has become the global benchmark for decarbonisation, carbon neutrality allows companies to continue emitting more CO2 than they remove from the atmosphere.

Offsets are becoming increasingly controversial. "I call it the fallacy of the offset," sustainable design guru William McDonough told Dezeen in an interview last month.

"If somebody says, oh, I've got this much renewable power and I'm gonna offset my carbon emissions, you have to be very careful," McDonough said. "That would logically then say that if you doubled your renewables, you could double your carbon and still be net-zero."

"That doesn't make any sense at all, because the atmosphere absorbs twice as much carbon. Renewables don't equal to [removing] carbon."

True net-zero "requires carbon removal"

Speaking to Dezeen this week, Taylor Francis of decarbonisation platform Watershed said that net-zero emissions can only be achieved by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

"We strongly believe that true net-zero requires carbon removal, which is taking carbon out of the atmosphere, rather than traditional offsets, which involve paying someone else not to emit carbon into the atmosphere," he said.

Google says it became carbon neutral in 2007. In September last year, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the firm had eliminated its carbon legacy dating back to its foundation in 1998.

"As of today, we have eliminated Google's entire carbon legacy (covering all our operational emissions before we became carbon neutral in 2007) through the purchase of high-quality carbon offsets," he stated in a keynote address.

"This means that Google's lifetime net carbon footprint is now zero."

Offsets make emissions "lower than they would have been"

However, a white paper outlining Google's carbon offsets explains that these merely make emissions "lower than they would have been" rather than bringing them to zero.

"At Google, we reduce our carbon footprint through efficiency improvements, generating on-site solar power and purchasing green power," the white paper states.

"To bring our remaining footprint to zero, we buy carbon offsets. A carbon offset is an investment in an activity that reduces carbon emissions. The reduction in carbon emissions is represented by a carbon credit."

"The credit, usually verified by a third party, signifies that greenhouse gas emissions are lower than they would have been had no one invested in the offset."

Google invests in offsets that burn captured methane

Google uses offsets that include capturing methane from landfill sites and agricultural sites. The methane is "captured and used or burned". It also works with forestry projects that "protect forests from destruction and degradation or [...] enhance and develop new ones".

The white paper states that since 2007, Google has "partnered with more than 40 carbon offset projects to offset more than 20 million tCO2e emissions".

This means that it must have emitted an equivalent amount – 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent – over the same period.

Bass works on the sustainability aspects of new Google buildings including the emerging campus at Mountain View in California, which has been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Thomas Heatherwick.

"We have a strategy to look for and innovate with manufacturers on lower-carbon options [for building materials]," she said, adding that in terms of lowering the embodied carbon of Google buildings, "we're absolutely tracking all of that".

"We've looked at the best-case scenario for mass timber. We will still use concrete and steel so we're really driving innovation on both of those materials, which have a very big [carbon] footprint. There's a lot of really exciting technology coming out for both of those products."

Mountain View campus topped with "dragonscale" solar panels

The giant Mountain View building will generate some of its power from "dragonscale" solar panels on its roof while geothermal pilings will help heat and cool the building.

Pichai discussed the project in another keynote in May this year when he said the project was part of Google's "moonshot" drive to achieve "24/7 carbon-free energy" by 2030.

"When completed, these buildings will feature a first-of-its-kind dragonscale solar skin, equipped with 90,000 silver solar panels and the capacity to generate nearly 7 megawatts," he said.

"They will house the largest geothermal pile system in North America to help heat buildings in the winter and cool them in the summer. It's been amazing to see it come to life."

However, Bass was unable to say what percentage of the building's power would be generated by the solar and geothermal systems.

In order to meet the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement and keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, the global economy needs to halve emissions by 2030 and become net-zero by 2050.

Google aims to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 50 per cent this year

Last month, Google signed up to the United Nations' Race to Zero campaign, which helps companies align their strategies with the Paris goals and achieve net-zero emissions.

Net-zero involves eliminating "Scope 3" emissions, which are emissions generated by a company's supply chain, including embodied carbon emissions caused by the construction of new buildings as well as emissions caused by customers using a company's products. These are the hardest emissions to eliminate.

"We will set a science-based target to reduce our Scope 3 emissions by at least 50 per cent later this year, in line with the guidance from UN's Race to Zero campaign and Exponential Roadmap Initiative," Google told Dezeen.

The United Nations' Race to Zero campaign defines net-zero as meaning no carbon is added to the atmosphere either directly or indirectly over the entire lifecycle, which includes materials used in a project and emissions caused by customers using a product, service or building.

"There's always more work to do"

Where emissions cannot be eliminated, they can be offset using carbon removal schemes that directly capture carbon from the atmosphere, for example via biomass or direct air capture technology. Offsetting schemes that reduce or defer emissions do not count, making Google's offsets incompatible with the Race to Zero.

"There's a ton of complexity in what makes something carbon-neutral or carbon-free," Bass said. "As a company, we're addressing it across all of our product areas, and certainly within the REWS [real estate and workplace services] portfolio as well."

"We offset all of our electricity consumption every year and have achieved that since 2017," she added. "Our really big goal is to work with local energy grids by doing things like the dragonscale solar and the geothermal and partnering with them on how we help them transition to cleaner energy supplies as well so that all of our buildings can plug into a clean grid."

"There's always more work to do," she added. "If anyone out there is claiming that they're 100 per cent carbon-free, red flags should be going up everywhere."

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

The post Carbon neutrality "still allows for carbon emissions" says Google sustainability lead appeared first on Dezeen.

#carbonrevolution #all #architecture #google

Urbanism "is one of the best tools we have" in the fight against climate change

The shift to remote working from suburbs and the countryside due to the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a huge rise in carbon emissions, according to Taylor Francis of decarbonisation platform Watershed.

The trend could increase migration from cities and lead to less sustainable lifestyles, he told Dezeen.

"One of the best tools we have in decarbonisation is urbanism," said Francis, who is co-founder of Watershed, which helps large companies eliminate their emissions.

"Everyone who lives in a city is way lower carbon than people who live in suburbs."

Remote working could be "quite negative" for climate change

Many companies claim their work-from-home policies have led to lower emissions but that is not necessarily the case, Francis said.

"One thing we're really concerned about is whether this kind of shift to remote work is actually incentivising people to move from San Francisco and London out into more suburban areas where they get a bigger home and buy an SUV," he continued.

"That's the way in which remote work could actually be quite negative from a climate impact perspective."

Taylor Francis of decarbonisation platform Watershed

Remote working could also lead to more work-related travel if companies arrange regular offsite gatherings, he added, pointing to a free calculator on Watershed's website that helps calculate the climate impact of their remote-working policies.

"If we're all going to be doing this sort of thing over Zoom that used to require a flight to London, then the new world is good," he said.

"But if work from home means that people are going to travel more often for quarterly offsites, that actually means work from home is bad."

Watershed aims to "help companies get to zero carbon"

Watershed was founded in 2019 to help companies understand and eliminate their carbon emissions. Its clients include home-rental platform Airbnb, food delivery company DoorDash, restaurant chain Sweetgreen and fintech brands Revolut and Monzo.

It helped e-commerce platform Shopify develop its $5 million carbon-removal fund and worked with payments platform Stripe on its carbon removal project.

"Watershed is a software platform to help companies get to zero carbon," Francis said. "At a super high level, we think that every business in the world above a certain size over the next 10 years is going to have to integrate climate into how they run their company."

Francis said there is a surge of large companies taking climate seriously and scrambling to develop strategies to achieve net-zero emissions.

"There's a huge wave of companies at the board and exec level thinking about climate in a pretty serious way," he said, following pressure from legislation as well as investors such as BlackRock, the world's biggest financial asset manager, which has committed to make its investment portfolio net-zero by 2050.

"That pressure comes from public market investors like BlackRock and it comes from regulators," he added. "The UK is actually leading the way there. The US is a step or two behind it."

"True net-zero requires carbon removal"

Watershed takes its clients through a four-step process. First, it helps them measure their emissions by uploading data to an online dashboard. Next, it advises them on how to reduce emissions. Thirdly, it assists with atmospheric carbon removal, which involves helping companies "fund permanent, durable, high-impact carbon removal".

Finally, it facilitates reporting so investors, regulators, employees and supply chains can see how they're progressing.

Francis, along with other leading figures in the nascent carbontech industry, uses the phrase "carbon removal" instead of "offsetting" since the latter term is widely used to describe schemes that reduce emissions rather than negating them.

"We strongly believe that true net-zero requires carbon removal, which is taking carbon out of the atmosphere, rather than traditional offsets, which involve paying someone else not to emit carbon into the atmosphere," he said.

Tackling climate change "planet's number one objective"

Carbon removal involves actively removing carbon that has already entered the atmosphere via carbon capture techniques including soil sequestration, biomass and direct air capture.

"Every solution for us getting to zero carbon by 2050 includes five to 10 gigatonnes of durable carbon removal per year by the middle of the century," he explained.

"Right now we're in the thousands of tonnes, tens of thousands of tonnes of credible carbon removal when you strip away all the low-quality, low-impact carbon offsets. So that space needs to scale up enormously."

"I think it will," he added, given that tackling climate change has become "the planet's number one objective". "But that's the pinch point. Where are those five to 10 gigatonnes per year of carbon removal gonna come from?"

He urged companies to set up carbon removal portfolios to help fund the sector so it can develop more efficient sequestration methods and achieve scale. "Funding carbon removal to get around the pinch point is really important," he said.

"Your carbon footprint is primarily the carbon footprint of the companies you work with"

Companies are beginning to realise that their carbon footprints are inextricably entwined with those of their supply chains. This is leading them to demand transparency from suppliers so they can work with them to eliminate the tricky Scope 3 emissions.

These are emissions generated by a company's value chain but over which it does not have direct control. Companies need to eliminate these emissions – or negate them via carbon removal – in order to achieve net-zero.

"The big emerging center of gravity is around engagement between suppliers and their customers because your carbon footprint is primarily the carbon footprint of the companies you work with," he said.

"And that's true for most companies that are not heavy emitters themselves. That whole space is completely nascent. There needs to be a more interoperable standard for how companies share data about their carbon footprints and their carbon plans with their customers. That's part of the Watershed mission."

Overall, the built environment accounts for around 40 per cent of global emissions and the real-estate portfolios of large companies account for a huge proportion of their carbon footprints.

"The built environment is a very, very carbon-intensive space"

Reducing this has become a key focus for Watershed's clients. "When we do carbon footprint assessments for tech companies, their investment in new buildings, fit-outs and leasehold improvements ends up being near the top of the list almost all the time," Francis explained.

"The built environment is a very, very carbon-intensive space," he added, describing the situation as a "huge opportunity" for architects.

These companies "desperately want to fit out buildings in a low-carbon way or build new buildings in a low-carbon way," he added. "The thing that's exciting is that it's a dirty supply chain. But it's also a supply chain where there are low carbon options. There's a lot of possibilities out there."

However, companies tend to "get a blank response" from architects and construction firms.

"The common journey that I see is that customers who would be architects' clients say: 'Whoa, this is a wake-up call. We desperately want to fit out our building in a low-carbon way or build a new building in a low-carbon way'. And then they go to their contractors or architects and kind of get a blank response."

"So I think there's a huge opportunity for architecture firms, builders and contractors to have a low-carbon offering. Because companies are in the market for that."

Pressure building from investors and customers

Large architecture firms have been slow to join the net-zero movement. The profession is one of the least well-represented sectors in the UN's Race to Zero campaign while less than six per cent of UK practices have signed up to the RIBA's net-zero challenge.

Architects tend to respond by saying they can't force their clients to commission net-zero buildings, which are buildings that make no contribution to atmospheric carbon across their whole lifecycle including both construction and use.

Does Francis buy that argument? "No I don't," he replied.

Watershed is not yet working with any of the heavy-emitting companies such as oil-and-gas firms or cement manufacturers. But he believes that pressure from investors, legislators and customers will force them to clean up their acts.

"Our strategy is to work with companies that are at least one step downstream of the heavy emitters," he said. "Because I think there's this really interesting pressure that is building from investors and customers to companies."

"It ends up manifesting in demand for low-carbon solutions from the commodity providers. And so that's where we really spend our time."

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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BREEAM and LEED green certification schemes are "meaningless" says Andrew Waugh

Environmental certification schemes for buildings overlook embodied carbon and encourage architects to add unnecessary "systems and gizmos" to achieve high ratings, according to architect Andrew Waugh.

Schemes such as BREEAM and LEED focus overwhelmingly on operational emissions rather than emissions from the construction supply chain, Waugh argued.

However, embodied carbon emissions make up around half of all emissions from buildings. The percentage is rising as buildings become more energy-efficient and renewable energy becomes more prevalent.

"The certification systems still focus on operational carbon," said Waugh, who is founding director of London architecture studio Waugh Thistleton Architects and a member of the steering committee of climate action network Architects Declare.

"They're meaningless. They are awards that prop up the existing systems."

BREEAM and LEED don't focus on embodied carbon

To achieve BREEAM's highest Outstanding rating, a building needs 85 credits, Waugh said. But only nine or ten credits are available for approaches that tackle embodied carbon, he claimed.

To achieve Platinum under the LEED system, a building needs 80 points. But only three are available for embodied carbon, according to Waugh.

Above: Foster + Partners Bloomberg building is an example of a project that prioritises operational carbon over embedded carbon. Top: Andrew Waugh Architects founder Andrew Waugh

Waugh said that UK regulations covering operational carbon are already "pretty good" in the UK and achieving zero operational emissions is achievable, particularly since the electricity grid is rapidly switching to renewable sources.

"For heating, lighting and air conditioning, building regulations are pretty good," he said. 'They drive pretty hard targets and the more we green our energy systems, the less of an issue it becomes."

"There's no accounting for future decarbonising of power"

But he said "there's no accounting for future decarbonising of power" in the certification schemes.

This means that schemes such as BREEAM and LEED are misguided, he said, since they encourage architects to focus too much on adding unnecessary energy-saving technologies in order to increase their certification ratings. "The return is so incremental," he argued.

Waugh cited Foster + Partners' Bloomberg headquarters in London as an example.

Completed in 2017, the office building was dubbed "the world's most sustainable office" and achieved the highest-ever BREEAM rating for an office building. It claims to require 35 per cent less energy than a standard office building and won the 2018 Stirling Prize for the best building by a British architect.

The Bloomberg achieved the highest ever BREEAM rating for an office building

However, the £1 billion building was criticised at the time for its extravagance and its reliance on complex systems which include hundreds of moveable bronze fins to regulate solar gain and ceilings covered in 2.5 million bespoke aluminium petals that reflect light and help regulate acoustics and temperate.

The Stirling Prize jury's sustainability adviser Simon Sturgis told the Architects Journal that the building's victory was a "disastrous result" that he hoped would be "the last flourish of a high-resource approach to design and construction."

"The embodied carbon footprint of the finished building is going to be a significant multiple of a standard high-quality office building, even taking longevity into account," he said.

Foster + Partners itself admits that certification systems overlook embodied carbon.

"The existing certification systems focus on the operational energy which is expended by a building in use, but do not fully address the implications of embodied carbon emissions resulting from the energy required to construct a building and during manufacture," it writes in its sustainability manifesto.

"The Bloomberg building is a great example," Waugh said. "They've reduced operational carbon over and above building regulations to meet BREEAM targets with all these systems and gizmos, layering more and more stuff onto an existing architecture."

BREEAM and LEED are two of the top certification schemes

BREEAM and LEED are two of the world's leading certification schemes, with both claiming to be the world's most-used green building certification system.

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) was launched by UK research institute the Building Research Establishment in 1990.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) was launched in 1993 and is administered by the US Green Building Council.

Both BREEAM and LEED have made modest changes recently to take embodied carbon into account.

In 2019, BREEAM introduced credits for architects that carry out lifecycle assessments (LCA) to establish emissions over both the construction and use phases of a building.

Conducting an LCA and choosing low-impact materials can now earn half the available credits in the materials category, according to a blog post on the BREEAM website. In addition, the weighting of materials in the overall scoring system has been increased to 15 per cent.

Version 4.1 of LEED, which was introduced in 2019, includes new credits for LCAs, building reuse and environmental product declarations (EPDs), all of which can help lower embodied carbon.

"These credits incentivize real reductions in embodied carbon at multiple scales throughout the building lifecycle," said a LEED blog post announcing the changes.

BREEAM said the schemes help projects achieve net-zero

Dezeen approached BREEAM and LEED to respond to Waugh's claims but had not heard back by the time of publication.

However, a spokesperson for BREEAM said that the scheme "does help projects to achieve net-zero".

"BREEAM building schemes have credits promoting operational energy efficiency. There are also credits encouraging low embodied carbon."

But the spokesperson admitted: "At the moment these aren't pulled out into a single carbon metric and BREEAM doesn't capture all the potential “net” options of net-zero carbon.

A future update "will provide a more comprehensive assessment of net-zero carbon."

But Waugh argued that buildings were assessed "as designed, not in use. So there's no telling if the carbon savings are even made."

"These certification systems encourage a 'keep digging' mentality to get us out of this very man-made hole," he added. "It's very much business as usual, just with more stuff and systems. And all those systems can be ruined if you open a window, or if you take your jacket off."

"What's required is a complete paradigm shift to predominantly passive, resource-conscious design," he concluded.

The built environment is said to be responsible for 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions

Last week, a UK construction industry group called Part Z called for mandatory reporting of embodied carbon for new building projects to tackle "hidden" emissions caused by construction supply chains.

"Regulating embodied carbon is vital for the construction industry in tackling the climate crisis," the group said. "The industry is ready for this."

In total, the built environment is thought to be responsible for around 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions, with embodied carbon accounting for around half of this.

Built-environment emissions will be on the agenda at the UN's COP26 climate conference in November, which for the first time will feature a day dedicated to the sector.

However, UN climate champion Nigel Topping has expressed frustration at the lack of engagement by architects in the drive towards a net-zero economy.

Meanwhile, just six per cent of RIBA architecture firms have signed up to the body's 2030 Climate Challenge, which is aimed to help them deliver net-zero buildings. Foster + Partners, Grimshaw Architects and Zaha Hadid Architects are among practices that have failed to sign up.

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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Scientists developing bio-based carbon fibres being "showered with requests" for sustainable version of the wonder material

Scientists are working on carbon fibres made from biomaterials instead of fossil fuels in an attempt to create a version that does not generate carbon emissions.

Bio-based carbon fibres could be used to build lightweight electric cars with greater battery range, according to senior scientist Dr Erik Frank.

In architecture, concrete could be reinforced with carbon fibres instead of steel, allowing ultra-thin structures to be built.

Erik Frank (above) is developing carbon fibres (top) from biomaterials

"It's a wonder material because it is very strong and yet light compared to metal," said Frank, who is head of carbon fibre development and new materials at the German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research in Denkendorf, southern Germany.

However, "the carbon footprint of carbon fibres is usually very bad," he added.

"The raw materials [for regular carbon fibre] come from petroleum but we're trying to move away from this," he explained. "Bio-based carbon fibres are in much higher demand than they used to be. We're being showered with requests."

Carbon fibres originally made from plant-based materials

Carbon fibres are incredibly thin threads of almost pure carbon crystals. Measuring just 5 to 10 micrometres, they are five times stronger than steel and twice as stiff.

The material was originally made from plant-based materials including cellulose and rayon, Frank said, until the lower price and higher performance of fossil-derived versions made bio-based carbon fibre unviable.

The fibres are being developed at the German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research in Denkendorf, Germany

But the production process requires vast amounts of energy and generates large amounts of emissions and toxins. "If we want carbon fibres to be carbon neutral, all of this needs to be redesigned," Frank said.

To make the fibres, petroleum is first processed into highly toxic polyacrylonitrile (PAN). This is pulled into thin threads and then heated in an oven without oxygen.

Growing demand for bio-based carbon fibres

The process requires large amounts of energy and generates pollution as everything except the carbon atoms are burned away. "A couple of years ago this wasn't even a topic," said Frank. "People only cared about costs."

"Nowadays, sustainability is much more important and petroleum isn't so cheap anymore so it's a different story. Carbon fibre is a major component in that because it's so energy-intensive."

Frank is exploring ways of turning lignin, a substance found in most plants and which is a byproduct of the paper industry, into carbon fibres.

"We're working with lignin as a raw material," he explained. "It's a waste byproduct which accumulates in huge quantities in the paper industry. Normally, this is added to concrete or asphalt or incinerated. We're using it to make carbon fibre."

"To do that, we use chemical methods to purify it and get it into a good shape," he continued. "Then we can spin this into fibres, which we're trying to do directly in water rather than having to use toxic solvents. And the fibres that you get can be directly turned into carbon fibres."

Carbon fibre currently expensive and unsustainable

The performance of bio-based carbon fibre is "on the medium to lower-end" compared to PAN-based fibres, he added. "I should say the bio-based carbon fibres won't replace the PAN-based ones. It will just be a second market running alongside."

Carbon fibre is widely used to create aircraft and cars as well as high-performance products including bicycles, tennis rackets and wind turbines. It is extremely lightweight, meaning that it can significantly improve performance and reduce energy requirements.

However, it is expensive to produce as well as having an increasingly bad reputation due to its unsustainability.

"In aircraft construction, it is already used as standard," said Frank. "It can make a difference in electric cars by helping to save on weight."

"The automotive industry would like to move to carbon fibre but it is as of yet too expensive and not sustainable enough. The car industry is extremely driven by price and increasingly looking to do things more sustainably."

Last year, work started on the first building featuring concrete reinforced with carbon fibre. CUBE, a two-story building designed by Henn Architekten at the Technical University Dresden in Germany, is due to be completed later this year.

"It's already happening on a small scale that concrete is reinforced with carbon fibre but it's not yet at mass adoption stage," Frank said. "The benefit is that you can make the concrete much thinner while being able to carry heavy loads so you can design completely different shapes. The aim is to get away from the huge amounts of concrete that are being used today."

Bio-based carbon fibres could be more affordable than petroleum-based options

The high cost of carbon fibre is partly due to the complex and energy-intensive production process. Frank said that the global output is just 150,000 tonnes per year.

Another drawback of the material is that it is difficult to recycle and dispose of, although ways of reusing it are now being developed. "Many people are innovating in this field," Frank said.

"There are already quite a few recycled carbon fibres and they're even being used in products. Of course, they become worse with every cycle and at some point, they will have to be disposed of. Burning isn't an option because it's really hard to burn. A lot of the time it is stored in old mines."

Airbus "looking for sustainable carbon fibres"

But the demand for sustainable, high-performance materials means that bio-based carbon fibres could soon be more affordable as research and development ramps up around the world.

"All industries are being forced to cut down on CO2," Frank said. "It's not voluntary any more because it's going to get very expensive if they don't. Even aviation companies such as Airbus are looking for sustainable carbon fibres."

"We’re working on using the raw materials of the plants and turning them straight into carbon fibre," he concluded. "This means we’ve taken the carbon from the air via the plants, rather than adding carbon from fossil sources like petroleum or coal into the atmosphere."

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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"Great design isn't enough. We need homes that will get us to net-zero"

To reduce carbon emissions, architects and designers need to change the way they design homes, writes Geraldine de Boisse, vice president of innovation at renewable-energy supplier Bulb.

The way we live and work has changed. While we might not know exactly what normal looks like anymore, we know we need to act now to tackle the climate crisis. And that includes everyone in every industry.

Great design isn't enough. We need homes and offices that will get us to net-zero. Construction work accounts for 36 per cent of global energy use and 39 per cent of CO2 emissions. It's therefore crucial to future-proof buildings and make them green. That includes changing the way we design, power and heat our homes and offices.

Until now, most of the gains we've made in tackling the climate crisis haven't affected people's daily lives. Thanks to the massive increase in renewable energy, which now powers around 30 per cent of UK homes compared to just one per cent in 2015, many countries have been able to reduce emissions without disrupting the way we live.

The gains we've made in tackling the climate crisis haven't affected people's daily lives

The next stage will require more personal change, and governments have an important role to play in setting the policy and financial incentives. To reach the Paris Agreement goals by 2050, existing homes will need deep retrofits including better insulation, upgraded windows, heat pumps, solar panels and electric vehicle chargers. New homes will feature these as standard.

This means that homes will look different in future, requiring different design approaches. Designers will need to think creatively about how to integrate these new products.

In the UK, from 2025, no new gas boilers will be installed in new UK homes; instead, we'll move towards using electricity for heating. Heat pumps, popular in several Nordic countries as well as the US, will become commonplace. It's important to factor this in when drawing up new plans for properties.

We'll see more people generating their own electricity using solar panels, and storing it in electric car batteries, or home batteries. More people will sell electricity back to power grids when demand is highest. At Bulb, we're trialling home battery technology for our members with solar panels. Designs will need to incorporate ways for people to generate, manage and store their own power.

Globally, heat accounts for nearly half of all energy consumption

Insulation will have to get better. Without good insulation, heat escapes from roofs, floors and walls, increasing the amount of energy needed to heat buildings. Globally, heat accounts for nearly half of all energy consumption and almost 40 per cent of carbon emissions from energy. While insulation can be incorporated into new buildings, retrofitting older homes is costly and disruptive, so governments need to provide better financial incentives, like scrapping VAT on green products. For new builds, designs should optimise energy efficiency and maximise insulation.

Switching to renewable energy is the fastest and cheapest way to lower your CO2 impact at home or in the office. It could lower your carbon emissions by 3.2 tonnes of carbon a year at home and reduce your business' emissions by around 40 per cent.

Next, ask your energy supplier if you're eligible to have a smart meter installed at home or in the office. Smart meters help lower bills and reduce carbon emissions. Smart meters show where you use the most energy, so you can take steps to reduce it.

The simple act of turning down the thermostat act could lower your bills and your carbon emissions

When restyling an interior, it's important to configure spaces that'll mean you're able to cut down on carbon and do your bit for the planet. Having your desk near a window away from the sun in the summer will mean you don't have to use fans or air conditioning; positioning sofas and chairs away from radiators in the winter will allow the heat from your radiator to warm the room as a whole, rather than just the back of furniture.

And installing insulation will keep your home or office warm in the winter and cool in the summer, as well as reducing your energy bills and cutting your carbon emissions. You can also look at replacing windows and doors, or switching to a heat pump.

Whether at home or the office, the simple act of turning down the thermostat act could lower your bills and your carbon emissions. Turning an office thermostat down by just two degrees would save £140 on a £1,000 bill, and by turning your thermostat at home down by one degree, you could save around £90 per year. Or get a smart thermostat, which will adapt to how you like to heat your home and show you the most efficient temperature.

When choosing lighting, there's a trick to ensure you're not wasting energy and being inefficient with your lighting choice: LED bulbs are up to 65 per cent more efficient than standard lighting. You can also avoid lighting empty rooms by using occupancy sensors. Install daylight sensors to dim lights automatically in bright or outdoor spaces, and if you're thinking about renovations, consider splitting lights onto smaller circuits with more switches. This gives you more flexibility to split your space into different zones, and have fewer lights on.

To achieve net-zero, all industry bodies need to come together and play their part

If you've already switched from a diesel or petrol car to an electric one then well done - you're already doing your bit to reduce your carbon footprint. You can go one step further by charging your car at the cheapest, greenest time of the day. At Bulb, we're trialling EV technology that allows you to order a stylish home charger, connect your car to our app, and automatically charge when demand is lowest on the grid.

To achieve net-zero, all industry bodies need to come together and play their part. In the design world, there's an opportunity to balance great design with energy efficiency to future-proof buildings. The future of homes and buildings will be different, but for the better. We're at a crucial time now where designers need to get on board. In today's world, it's not just about having a beautiful interior; sustainability should be taking priority.

Geraldine de Boisse is vice president of innovation at UK renewable energy supplier Bulb. She has a MSc from ESCP Europe and an MBA from INSEAD.

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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Forgo aims to become net-zero "within the next five years" through its refillable cosmetics

Swedish cosmetics brand Forgo has conducted a lifecycle assessment of its mix-it-yourself soap in a bid to eliminate carbon emissions from its supply chain.

By driving down the emissions associated with producing its refillable cosmetics, the company hopes to reach net-zero by 2026, co-founder Allon Libermann told Dezeen

"We will be net-zero with offsets as a company," he said. "Maybe not by 2023 but definitely within the next five years. So that includes Scope 1, 2 and 3 [emissions]."

To become net-zero, a company needs to reduce its emissions across three categories, as set out by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

This includes direct Scope 1 emissions from the assets it controls, Scope 2 emissions from purchased energy and indirect Scope 3 emissions generated along the value chain.

According to Libermann, Forgo will begin by focusing on its Scope 3 emissions as these will likely be the most substantial.

"First and foremost, we want to reduce our own supply chain emissions as low as possible," he said.

Design brands lead charge to decarbonise economy

Forgo is one of several design companies taking a lead in efforts to become net-zero businesses, meaning they eliminate all emissions generated both by their own activities and those of their value chain.

Others going down the same route include furniture brand Takt, carpet company Interface, shoe brand Allbirds and furniture maker Sebastian Cox.

Forgo's mix-it-yourself soap is delivered to the user in powdered form

To become net-zero, companies must do as much as they can to remove greenhouse gas emissions from their entire value chain, including materials provided by suppliers and the lifetime use of their products. Any remaining emissions must be offset using schemes that remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

"I've seen a lot of brands going straight to offsetting and I find that when you do that you kind of skip over the fact that you're an emitter," said Libermann.

The global economy needs to become net-zero by 2050 at the latest to achieve the aims of the 2015 Paris Agreement and have a chance to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Refills emit 85 per cent less CO2 than bottled soap

Forgo, which was launched by Libermann and design studio Form Us With Love at last year's Stockholm Design Week, produces soap that's delivered to the user in powdered form.

Customers then mix the powder with tap water inside a reusable glass bottle.

Forgo commissioned New York company Carbon Calories to carry out a lifecycle assessment on its products. This concluded that the refill system has a lower carbon footprint over time than continually buying new single-use plastic containers.

However, upfront emissions are higher. Producing the reusable bottles generates four times more emissions than creating a throwaway plastic one due to the energy needed to heat and melt the glass.

One of the brand's paper refill sachets emits 83 per cent less CO2e than bottled soap

But because single-use containers need to be replaced regularly, this creates a larger, cumulative carbon footprint over time.

Carbon Calories' analysis found that after five years, Forgo's refill system would have avoided the need for approximately 55 plastic bottles, with each refill sachet emitting 85 per cent less carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) than buying a new bottle of soap.

Buying refillable soap is similar to investing in renewable energy infrastructure such as solar panels, Libermann argued, which involves an initial increase in emissions in the construction phase that is eventually cancelled out by eliminating the need to burn fossil fuels.

"We've applied the same principle to our products," Libermann said. "So the bottle is an upfront investment and over time, as you use it, you dramatically reduce your emissions."

Renewable energy and recycled glass could lower footprint

From here, Forgo will work to drive down the footprint of its products to as close to zero as possible. Then the company will look at offsetting what emissions remain, in line with The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting, by investing in direct air capture (DAC) and soil carbon sequestration.

Off the back of Carbon Calories’ lifecycle analysis, Forgo is lobbying its glass workshop in Portugal to switch to renewable energy and recycled glass.

This would eliminate the need to mine limestone and sand and drive down the emissions associated with the production of its bottles.

"Changing the power source is something that the customer doesn't really see or experience when they buy a product but it's the easiest ways to reduce emissions," Libermann said.

"It's possible to make glass entirely from renewable energy but most factories, like ours, still use mostly natural gas. We're discussing ways that they can make the switch but we're one of their smallest clients so we need all the others to be on board and willing to pay the cost."

Throwaway culture "doesn't work with a sustainable future"

An even less carbon-intensive option would be to create solid soap bars that need minimal packaging. But Libermann argues that the possible positive impact of such a product would be smaller due to declining demand.

"Liquid soaps make up 70 plus per cent of the global market," he said.

"Bar soaps make up a shrinking part of the market. For multiple reasons, people prefer bottled personal care. It's an unfortunate truth."

The refill sachets are made from paper with a water-soluble, compostable coating

A Forgo starter kit, including a reusable glass bottle and three refill sachets, currently retails for £44, making it more comparable to the price of an Aesop product than that of a standard high street brand.

"It's going to cost more to make things in a better way, so buying soap for £1 to £2 wouldn't be realistic," Libermann said.

"Everyone is racing to the bottom in terms of what they charge customers and how little they pay their farms and manufacturers," he added.

"Making everything super cheap makes it accessible but it also creates an economy where brands make money when you throw something away because you go out and buy another one. That business model doesn't work with a sustainable future."

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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UK industry group calls for new rules to force architects to calculate embodied carbon emissions

A group of UK architects, developers and contractors have called for compulsory whole-life carbon assessments of buildings in a bid to tackle "hidden" emissions caused by construction supply chains.

The Embodied Carbon Group this week launched a proposal for a new Part Z to be added to the building regulations, which would compel projects to report embodied carbon emissions.

The group, which includes architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studio, Arup and Allies & Morrison, also called for limits on upfront emissions to be imposed by 2027. It is supported by contractors including Laing O'Rourke, BAM and Willmott Dixon.

"Regulating embodied carbon is vital for the construction industry in tackling the climate crisis," said Jenny Stephens of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. "The industry is ready for this."

New proposal to cover projects over 1,000 square metres

The group is calling on industry leaders to support the proposals, which are published on the part-z.uk website.

The proposed new Part Z would cover any building project over 1,000 square metres. Projects would need to disclose their embodied carbon emissions, which include all emissions caused by the extraction and processing of materials as well as the construction process itself.

“For too, long embodied emissions in construction have been hidden in the built environment," said Tor Burrows, executive director for sustainability and innovation at property developer Grosvenor.

"With today’s call, the industry is asking for regulation to ensure that every significant UK development tracks and limits its full carbon footprint," she added. "We already do this for our large development projects and the time is right to introduce legislation for the whole industry.”

Embodied carbon emissions released before a building is complete can account for half the total emissions, with operational emissions making up the rest. In total, the built environment is thought to be responsible for around 40 per cent of global CO2 emissions.

Construction materials such as concrete and steel have high embodied carbon, with cement causing an estimated eight per cent of global emissions.

Reducing embodied carbon is a key part of ensuring buildings have net-zero emissions. "Around 10 per cent of our national greenhouse gas emissions are associated with construction," said Chris Carroll, net-zero buildings leader for Arup UK.

"To reduce embodied carbon impacts in line with the national net-zero 2050 pathway, we need firm, supportive legislation which sets out a clear requirement to measure, report, and reduce against aligned targets."

Climate change committee calls for mandatory carbon reporting

The Part Z proposal comes a month after the UK Climate Change Committee's latest progress report to parliament, which called for mandatory whole-life carbon reporting.

The committee called for "a plan for phasing in mandatory whole-life reporting followed by minimum whole-life standards for all buildings, roads and infrastructure by 2025."

The independent committee, which advises the government on climate policy, also called for policies "to drive more resource-efficient construction and use of existing low-carbon materials, including a substantial increase in the use of wood in construction".

It also called for a review of the proposed inclusion of structural timber in new rules banning combustible materials in construction.

“Over the last two years, developers, designers and contractors have come together from across construction to tackle the climate crisis at an unprecedented pace," said Will Arnold, lead author of the Part Z proposal and head of climate action at the Institution of Structural Engineers.

"We are ready for embodied carbon regulation, and we hope that the government will engage with industry to introduce Part Z into law.”

Climate conference to feature built environment day

Built-environment emissions will be on the agenda at the UN's COP26 climate conference in November, which for the first time will feature a day dedicated to the sector.

However, UN climate champion Nigel Topping has expressed frustration at the lack of engagement by architects in the drive towards a net-zero economy.

Meanwhile, just six per cent of RIBA architecture firms have signed up to the body's 2030 Climate Challenge, which is aimed to help them deliver net-zero buildings. Foster + Partners, Grimshaw Architects and Zaha Hadid Architects are among practices that have failed to sign up.

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen'scarbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is byTaylor van Riper via Unsplash.

The post UK industry group calls for new rules to force architects to calculate embodied carbon emissions appeared first on Dezeen.

#carbonrevolution #all #architecture #news