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Life-Cycle Carbon footprint assessment and consultancy
Phlorum, in association with the University of Brighton, has developed a life-cycle carbon assessment tool, used in-house to predict carbon emissions across the whole-life of a development.
As 2016 approaches, when all new homes are expected to be zero-carbon, embodied emissions will account for 100% of all carbon associated with a dwelling.
Our software model assesses the carbon embodied at the design stage of a project, including emissions from material manufacture and transportation, and emissions from operation of the development (using SAP methodology). It then makes recommendations to reduce the carbon (through specification of waste additives in concrete, sustainably sourced local timber, energy efficient boilers, etc), and, most importantly, quantifies the carbon savings.
The model can be used at any stage of the design process, whether the user has basic information on design, or whether the design is more advanced. Quantities of materials needed for the construction of a design are calculated, using industry standard data, which can be overwritten if the user has site-specific information.
A case study of an assessment performed on a house built to Code Level 4 can be found here ? we show how life-cycle emissions can be reduced by up to 70%.
An advantage of assessment using our model is that it proves to planning authorities that the environmental implications of material selection have been examined and dealt with.
