Making
Low Carbon Decisions
An introduction to our industry-leading carbon reduction toolkit
CarboniCa is our unique carbon calculator which measures whole life carbon emissions of a building, from design to construction, and its entire lifecycle. Since it's launch in 2021, we've helped our customers save thousands of tonnes of carbon on projects across the UK.
CarboniCa is now being rolled-out on all our projects in the East, allowing our site teams to estimate, manage and reduce whole life carbon emissions through the design, construction, and in use phases.
It provides reliable data, challenges business as usual, represents an integrated approach and is geared towards project-specific information.
CarboniCa underpins the delivery of our strategy on projects, empowering customers to make decisions based on meaningful data, and reducing carbon across the life of the assets we construct.
Developed from the ground up as a tool that doesn't require in depth training or specialist knowledge
It asks simple questions related to information our project teams have access to
It is cloud-based and doesn’t rely exclusively on BIM plug-ins, with a distinct numbering convention
Allows us to respond quickly to emerging UK-specific guidance around the carbon economy
It's entirely aligned with the RICS Whole life carbon assessments for the built environment Professional Statement
CarboniCa has been externally validated by Arup to the latest industry standards and can be used for any project. It is also aligned with the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) framework for net zero buildings, the aims of the Construction Playbook and the RICS professional statement on whole life carbon assessments.
Discover more about our carbon-reduction toolkit in this brochure, or you can visit our website
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Globally, the built environment is responsible for 40% of carbon emissions emitted to the atmosphere.
In 2019 the UK Government passed a law to require the UK to end its contribution to global warming by 2050 by bringing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.
As an industry we have a responsibility to our planet and future generations to ensure we do not irreversibly harm the environment.
Video: CarboniCa in Action at Unity Campus
Lower carbon design and operation of buildings has become an ever more important criteria for investors, whose shareholders have stringent requirements around ESG (Economic, Social, Governance). Add to that, educated tenants, who want to work in sustainable environments, and the decision to ‘go green’ is vital.
CarboniCa has been deployed at Unity Campus in Cambridgeshire, where the team have embarked upon a carbon journey to deliver sustainable methods and designs across the campus.
Morgan Sindall is on track for Net Zero 2030 (Scope 1 & 2) and overall Net Zero by 2045, in alignment with the SBTi net zero pathway. We were also re-awarded our CDP-A rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Unity Campus Phase 2 is made up of three flexible lab-enabled office buildings, of similar size and construction.
Whilst these buildings were originally commissioned without specific embodied or operational carbon targets, early engagement during the PCSA stage, enabled us to baseline the scheme in terms of its carbon performance ‘as-designed.’
By using CarboniCa, our intelligent carbon calculator tool, we were able to show real time impact on both embodied and operational carbon by careful material selections.
CarboniCa’s simplicity allows for live updates to be entered for quantities and the outcomes to be immediately available to design team and clients to inform their decision making.
CarboniCa’s output report for Building A1 is clear and easily understandable.
Since we began our journey at RIBA Stage 2, we have been able record and track the following carbon savings and, with this knowledge it allows us to challenge future projects and options being proposed by design teams to maximise low carbon design from the beginning of our involvement.
Click on the table to enlarge.
Examples of carbon savings at Unity Campus:
By changing the SFS to a timber SIPs wrap system it saved 104 tCO₂e
By omitting the roof screed 40 tCO₂e was saved
By adding GGBS to the concrete mix 24 tCO₂e was saved
Switching concrete suppliers to the local depot in Sawston saved 32.5 tCO₂e
Travel distances of our supply chain are now being added to the RIBA Stage 5 Assessment and to date accurate tracking has led to a 36.7 kgCO₂e/m² reduction
We are currently reviewing the TM54 predicted operational energy prediction for Unity Campus to be ready to update with tenant inputs.
Tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent
Kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) emitted per square meter (m²)
The TM54 methodology looks at calculating predicted in-operation energy use. It takes into account variability based on uncertainty within the input data, giving upper and lower expectations.
