I wrote previously on why building materials are important in combating the climate emergency HERE and I’m starting to get to grips with the Embodied CO2 PHPP plug-in ‘PHRibbon’ and have a few bits that I’d like to add to the previous post:
‘Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon modelling and post occupancy evaluation as part of our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.’
Architects Declare aren’t enforcing that you do this and won’t be publicly shaming you if you don’t – have it as a goal – it’s important!
The first image is the full screen grab of all the data inputted (I’ve restricted this to key data at moment) and the second bar chart shows the break-down of each material:
PHRibbon analysis (key information only) on Embodied CO2
Bar chart showing Option A and Option B for Embodied CO2
This is what’s interesting:
The biggest proportion of CO2 in the building is in the concrete for the foundations. This is why the following declaration (Architects Declare Ireland) is so important:
‘Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition and new build whenever there is a viable choice.Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition and new build whenever there is a viable choice.’
I’ll be posting more on topics such as this in the future where the Practice will be changing it’s work methods in 2021 and in a Covid/Climate Emergency world. The posts will include how we will be adapting our Practice and showing our new work methods for designing, building and refurbishing low-energy and low embodied CO2 buildings. These posts will include more on our work as Passive House consultants/designers using PHPP software and integrating Vectorworks Energos and SketchUp DesignPH into our workflows.
So watch this space…