HS2 and Environment Agency to put new Carbon Reduction Code through its paces

High Speed 2 (HS2), the Environment Agency and the National Association of Construction Frameworks are currently trialling a new Carbon Reduction Code for the Built Environment ahead of a formal industry launch in November.

The Carbon Reduction Code has been developed by the Achieving Net Zero Cross-Industry Working Group convened by the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC). The work has been carried out on behalf of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) and is part of the council’s Construct Zero initiative.

“It is essential that our industry reduces carbon emissions and the more organisations that sign up to the Code the more we will achieve. Carbon reduction is much more likely to happen when all organisations within a value chain are committed to working together to reduce their footprint and save costs,” said CSIC director Jennifer Schooling.

“Collaboration is the key to success, and with alignment across all parties we can progress towards the net zero carbon objective at the pace required. There are already many excellent examples of carbon reduction measures among our Achieving NetZero Cross-Industry Working Group and the code builds upon these strengths to provide an encouraging, supportive and collaborative approach to reducing carbon.

“The code was drafted during 2020 by the CSIC Achieving Net Zero Cross-Industry Working Group and it aims to be a first step to facilitate action by relevant parties towards reducing carbon emissions.”

Nonetheless, she added that it was not intended to replace PAS 2080, which covers carbon management on site, or other equivalent standards. “It is intended to set out a contract between the different organisations to collaborate in reducing carbon and point towards the relevant standards,” she said.

There are three parts to the Carbon Reduction Code – the first is for all parties interested in reducing carbon in construction, the second is focused on clients and the final part is for the supply chain.

“The first section is for all businesses who are part of the construction, infrastructure and building industries and it states that we will aim to reduce our direct and indirect carbon emissions by 75% by 2025 in order to meet zero carbon emissions by 2045, which is the Scottish Government target,” explained Schooling. “This sets out the plans with annual targets and recognises that the majority of cuts need to be made by 2030. We will publish the plans and the progress against those plans annually.”

For clients, the code calls for carbon reduction and reporting targets to be built into procurement documents from this year as a deliverable of the procurement process. Schooling said that this will move the “cost-carbon” balance in favour of low carbon choices rather than low cost choices. Clients committing to the code will also provide a carbon baseline for each project and set targets for carbon reduction against these. The code also calls for carbon data to externally verified.

For the supply chain, there are commitments to report on operational carbon from this year and reduce carbon intensity of projects year on year, to automate the production and delivery of carbon production information and proactively recommend and adopt carbon measurement and carbon reduction methodologies on all projects.

“The code is currently being trialled by HS2, the Environment Agency and the National Association of Construction Frameworks,” said Schooling. “They are assessing the code in terms of practicality for implementation in order to revise it ahead of a formal launch in November this year, as well as provide case studies on how to approach adoption of the code in practice.”

Source https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/hs2-and-environment-agency-to-put-new-carbon-reduction-code-through-its-paces-22-06-2021/

Department of Civil Engineering https://www.ibu.edu.ba/department-of-civil-engineering/