Design Guide: Embodied Carbon in Building Services: a calculation methodology (TM65)
This guide from CIBSE is to help the industry take a first step together to evaluate embodied carbon emissions in MEP design, alongside operational carbon emissions. Written by Louise Hamot and Clara Bagenal George of Elementa Consulting, the publication is the result of a collaboration of industry experts, including our Green Group lead, Michelle Sanchez.
“I believe that the architect needs to be able to discuss and promote more sustainable MEP systems for our buildings. We generally are the Lead Designers so we need to have the knowledge to make sure we push for more sustainable design solutions. If we aren’t involved in this type of conversation, sometimes the decisions and discussions are not holistic to the whole building.”
Michelle Sanchez, Project Designer
The guide addresses the need for a methodology to properly assess the embodied carbon of all products linked to MEP systems. Currently, there is not much information available and it's an item in the building sector that has been left behind in comparison with other architectural and structural elements.
To be able to design and build Zero-Carbon buildings, we need to take into consideration all elements of the building. With more information, the embodied carbon can be assessed using different calculation methods to lead to ways to reduce the embodied carbon associated with MEP systems.
Join CIBSE and the primary authors on 25 February for a dedicated TM65 webinar to discover more about this new publication.