How to calculate embodied carbon (Third edition)

Author: O P Gibbons, J J Orr and W Arnold

Date published

20 January 2025

Price
PDF: Free
Print: Standard: £69.95/Member: £44.95/Student: £34.95
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How to calculate embodied carbon (Third edition)

Guidance

Author

O P Gibbons, J J Orr and W Arnold

Date published

20 January 2025

Author

O P Gibbons, J J Orr and W Arnold

Price

PDF: Free
Print: Standard: £69.95/Member: £44.95/Student: £34.95

A comprehensively refreshed set of embodied carbon calculation principles for the structural engineering community to follow.

From 1 October, the publisher of the Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) database, Circular Ecology, will no longer provide free access to its carbon factor dataset outside of educational use. As a result, users of the Institution’s How to Calculate Embodied Carbon guide and Structural Carbon Tool should review their approach to sourcing carbon data and ensure the figures used remain appropriate and up to date. Circular Ecology has launched a commercial successor, IC+, while alternative sources such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and other carbon databases remain available. The Institution’s Climate Committee is currently reviewing the implications of these changes and the impact on future updates to IStructE’s recommended embodied carbon factors.


About this book

Note: Login to your MYACCOUNT to download the free PDF version

Following this guidance will:

•            Help you select and specify materials that are efficient while ensuring they're safe and durable

•            Establish an agreed set of principles for the measuring of embodied carbon

•            Assist you in reducing the amount of carbon you use in your projects

•            Allow you to quantify the benefits of low carbon design to the client and society

•            Increase your awareness of alternative ways of moving towards net zero carbon design

For an outline of the updates made to this third edition, read this free article published in The Structural Engineer.

The guide supports the sustainability-related core tasks in The Structural Plan of Work 2020 and has also been translated into an open-source Excel estimator: The Structural Carbon Tool — version 3, to quickly identify ways to minimise embodied carbon on your designs. It is aligned with the recently updated and relaunched second edition of the RICS Professional Statement: Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment, to BS EN 15978, and is also used as part of compliance with the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.

Additional information

Format:
Book (Print or PDF)
Pages:
80
Publisher:
IStructE Ltd

Tags

Materials Guidance Suitable for students Climate change Best practice Guides Carbon

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