Paul Reeve is Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at the Electrical Contractors Association
Designers and other professionals in the built environment are constantly improving the measurement of carbon incorporated in their building specifications. But now, engineering service contractors tendering public sector and commercial work are also being asked about the carbon footprint of mechanical and electrical (M&E) products. Questions like “Are you working with your supply chain to accelerate the development of less carbon-intensive materials?” appear in different frameworks and tenders. They pose a new challenge for smaller contractors, usually a stated objective of public sector tenders.
It is worth noting that relatively few contractors know, and most should not be expected to know, how to calculate the carbon footprint of what they design and install. In fact, and not surprisingly, manufacturers are the main source of ‘Carbon Embodied Equivalent’ (CO2e)* data. However, this means that an M&E contractor, as a product customer, should not hesitate to take the pragmatic first step of asking their main product suppliers if they have:
1) any current information about the carbon incorporated in the product; i
2) any plans to reduce the carbon impact of these products, or any recent evidence that this has already been achieved.
It’s fair to say that not all manufacturers will respond helpfully to these queries. However, the more customer requests they receive, the more likely they are to seek a tangible response.
And there are already good practices. For example, manufacturers such as Marshall-Tuffex provide easy-to-read incorporated carbon figures for their main ranges of PVC pipes, calculated using the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) document. TM65 – Carbon incorporated in construction services. The CIBSE guide provides a simplified route to assessing the carbon impact of M&E products using basic material, transport and process data.
Lighting the way to reduce carbon
Also, since August, the carbon impact of lighting products has received a boost from CIBSE’s TM65. Many leading lighting manufacturers are willing to share carbon data for their products and now the TM65.2 makes calculations for lighting easier, avoiding the complications of full product life cycle assessment. The new guide includes useful information on the different impacts of newly produced and recycled aluminium, and how to establish the embodied carbon of lighting fixtures.
These and other guidelines, supported by customer inquiries, are encouraging M&E manufacturers to collect essential data on production materials, processes, locations and transportation. The results can then help compare products, encouraging manufacturers to seek lower embodied carbon through routes such as lightweight product design; supply closer to home; and produce with less carbon-intensive materials (such as recycled aluminum) and/or less carbon-intensive energy (usually electricity).
Advantages of the supply chain
Whatever the building product, contractors who are able to present potential customers with a relevant response to their carbon inquiries, even if only to inform them that they have asked their suppliers, can begin to demonstrate that they are “aware of the embodied carbon”. Then, as their knowledge increases, they may also be able to:
- advise or even influence a customer’s design and installation options, based on available data;
- make your own product purchasing choices; i
- Highlight (and earn some kudos for) any in-product carbon reductions achieved by selected manufacturers.
High energy prices mean low demand for operational energy, and the valuable result of lower carbon emissions is a well-established selling point for a product. Increasingly, manufacturers are also realizing that useful data on incorporated carbon can add more business value. It’s information that M&E and other contractors can draw on when faced with difficult tender enquiries, providing potential clients with a more informed answer to their toughest carbon questions.
* CO2e refers to carbon dioxide and any other greenhouse gas produced in the production and manufacture of products. It is based on the emissions of the energy required to extract and transport raw materials, as well as those of the manufacturing/assembly processes. For contractors, these are part of what are known as scope 3 (value chain) carbon emissions. Although all products have a built-in carbon footprint, several “carbon-intensive” materials in M&E equipment include steel, aluminum, and some plastics.
