Structural engineering innovation for a zero-carbon world: an R&D agenda to match the carbon budget

The article showcases the University of East Anglia's Enterprise Centre project, a low-carbon, sustainable building which achieves both Passivhaus standard and BREEAM Outstanding rating.

As the climate changes there will be ever-increasing social and economic pressure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, with focus turning to the embodied carbon in products which has thus far been eclipsed by operational values.

Authors from Integral Engineering Design describe how they met their client's brief for a new science department that would demonstrate sustainable building structures to students. The result - The Nucleus - is a carbon-negative structure which will offset its operational emissions for seven years.