I have previously discussed how the construction industry is searching for innovative solutions to help reduce its carbon emissions and also how environmental targets are increasingly finding their way into contracts including funding agreements.
An important issue to consider is how to measure these targets e.g. how is net zero calculated and how do the stakeholders obtain the necessary data?
The relevant parties must decide whether a net zero target for a building should just include the building's embodied carbon (i.e. the emissions associated with its construction) or whether it should also include carbon emissions when the building is operational. In addition, as the below article discusses, developers will need to be able to scrutinise their supply chain in order to get the full picture.
Environmental targets will need to be accurately defined in the applicable contracts and passed down the supply chain. The relevant contracts will also need to contain rights and obligations so the necessary data can be obtained and parties can be held to account.
“It’s also important to get data from one’s supply chain. And we need to be able to interrogate our contractors and their supply chains to ensure that we get the things that we think we’re going to get, or that we’ve accounted for,” he said. “Because if that’s going to change through the procurement process we need to be able to have a model which is nimble enough to account for that and give us a running carbon total, so we can adapt the design as we go.
https://www.building.co.uk/sponsored-content/constructions-next-steps-to-net-zero/5112184.article
