Balancing embodied and operational carbon in building envelope design

Author: Will Wild

Date published

1 March 2022

Price

Standard: £9.95 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

The Institution of Structural Engineers The Institution of Structural Engineers
Back to Previous

Balancing embodied and operational carbon in building envelope design

Tag
Author
Will Wild
Date published
1 March 2022
Price

Standard: £9.95 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

The Structural Engineer
Author

Will Wild

Citation

The Structural Engineer, Volume 100, Issue 3, 2022, Page(s) 16-20

Date published

1 March 2022

Author

Will Wild

Citation

The Structural Engineer, Volume 100, Issue 3, 2022, Page(s) 16-20

Price

Standard: £9.95 + VAT
Members/Subscribers: Free

This article introduces the idea of a ‘carbon payback period’ as a metric for assessing the net carbon emissions of design decisions whose scope spans both the embodied and operational carbon.

Synopsis

The material and products used within building facades contribute directly to the embodied carbon of a project. Furthermore, the facade system plays a key role in the regulation of the building’s energy use and associated operational carbon. As a result, today’s facade engineers must balance both the embodied and operational carbon of their design decisions in the pursuit of minimising whole-life carbon.

To this end, this article introduces the idea of a ‘carbon payback period’ (CPP) as a metric for assessing the net carbon emissions of design decisions whose scope spans both the embodied and operational carbon. An approach for calculating the CPP is presented, and the need to account for the building performance gap and decarbonisation is highlighted. The article also introduces the concept of the ‘time value of carbon’ with a short discussion on how this may be accounted for within the assessment of the CPP.

Note that the CPP should not be used blindly and should inform design decision-making as part of a holistic approach. Engineers should be aware that benefits of climate resilience measures are not quantified in the CPP.

Additional information

Format:
PDF
Pages:
16-20
Publisher:
Institution of Structural Engineers

Tags

Glass Climate change Facades & Cladding Technical Carbon Issue 3

Related Resources & Events

Training
<h4>Recent trends inspiring structural design of contemporary building envelopes</h4>

Recent trends inspiring structural design of contemporary building envelopes

Discover the design principles, performance, and material selection in contemporary building envelopes.

Date – 21 July 2020
Author – Peter Lenk
Price – £26.00 + VAT
The Structural Engineer
Graph showing increased carbon with increased material use, spans etc

What if carbon drives our design from the outset?

This article considers the implications of adopting a carbon-driven design approach – with the express intent of limiting the embodied carbon of the structure.

Date – 1 February 2022
Author – James Norman
Price – £9.95
The Structural Engineer
<h4>Design solutions for efficient timber buildings</h4>

Design solutions for efficient timber buildings

This article offers some solutions to help structural engineers design efficient timber buildings.

Date – 2 August 2021
Author – James Walker
Price – £9.95