Is nuclear renewable? Strategies for decarbonisation.

A design configurator uses codified rules and libraries of components to rapidly generate coordinated and compliant designs.

This is a significant improvement which can be attributed to both the use of DfMA and the low carbon specification of materials..Embodied carbon comparisons.

The breakdown on a whole life basis (the embodied carbon both on day one and ongoing across the next 60 years, accounting for any maintenance and repairs and what happens when the building or components are at their end of life), shows the superstructure, external wall including curtain walling, and MEP to be the predominant contributors to the whole life carbon.These are the main areas where lessons can be learned on how to reduce embodied carbon.. As-built embodied carbon analysis.There is a perception across the construction industry that operational carbon is more significant than embodied carbon.

Our results show that operational carbon is expected to account for around a third of whole life carbon over the next 60 years (decarbonisation of the electricity grid is not currently accounted for).This operational carbon is based on NABERS Design for Performance modelling and is monitored during the building’s first year of occupation.. At two thirds of the whole life carbon of a building, embodied carbon is critical to address in the early design stages and provides the greatest opportunity for overall carbon impact reduction..

Operational carbon vs embodied carbon.

When considering how design choices impact embodied carbon, the data only supports the upfront carbon due to incomplete data for whole life carbon (WLC) for the BaU scheme (in 2018 the industry wasn’t regularly considering WLC calculations for projects)..If it is burnt or sent to landfill it will release CO2 and methane to the atmosphere, losing its properties as a heat sink.

In order to enable timber to be continuously reused, the building should be designed for deconstruction.Most Passivhaus buildings have not been designed for deconstruction in part due the complexity of junctions and the need to achieve the required overlapping and airtightness.

This is however possible with the implementation of DfMA which can design assemblies that meet the stringent envelope performance requirements and can also be disassembled..Passivhaus is a sustainable building certification standard that reduces operational energy and carbon emissions with minimum performance gap and achieves high levels of thermal comfort and air quality.. Bryden Wood’s P-DfMA approach to building design offers multiple synergies with Passivhaus since it is able to reduce construction programme, cost and design/construction complexity, and labour skills which are some of the inherent challenges of adopting Passivhaus.. Whilst the Passivhaus approach is focused on operational energy/carbon, there has been a keen interest in the industry to understand if this standard favours or penalises embodied carbon.