“ THE BUILDING SECTOR CURRENTLY CONTRIBUTES TO APPROXIMATELY 40 % OF GLOBAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS ( SOURCE AIA2030 ), HIGHLIGHTING THE CRUCIAL ROLE OUR SECTOR MUST PLAY IN TARGETING NET-ZERO CARBON ”
— Duncan Cox , Sustainability Lead , Thornton Tomasetti declared a climate and biodiversity emergency , with firms across the country committing to strengthening working practices to create structural engineering outcomes that have a more positive impact on the world around us . Of late , net-zero has become an electioneering buzzword , with leading opposition political parties declaring their intent to achieve net-zero by 2030 .
Before we explore the challenges we face in achieving a net-zero carbon target and the benefits that can be achieved , we must first clarify what the term means to the construction sector . The definition varies across the industry and there are various forms of emissions that must be considered by market participants : operational carbon and embodied carbon .
The past few decades have focused heavily on operational carbon in construction , which refers to the carbon emissions generated through regulated and unregulated use of lighting , heating , aircon and ICT . We ’ re seeing buildings becoming more operationally energy efficient over time , and sourcing power from
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