As we move into the second quarter of 2025, RLB Sustainability Associate, Mike Bentham has reflected on the built environment’s progress of the management of carbon emissions in the built environment, and the drive for Whole Life Carbon Assessments.
The Shift from Upfront to Whole Life Carbon
In my experience supporting clients targeting full alignment against industry leading standards (e.g., PAS 2080:2023), some fell short initially because of their sole focus on upfront carbon emissions – associated with the initial construction of a project (material procurement, transport to site, and construction activities).
However, in the last 12 months there has been a welcome increase in the uptake of whole-life carbon as a concept, with some evidence of industry action. For instance, in April 2024, a survey published by RLB showed that 33% of participating contractors were asked by clients to provide a whole life carbon assessment (WLCA), up from 14% in the previous year.
Guidance and Tools for WLCA
Tools and guidance for delivering WLCA have become readily available with the list of options growing weekly including numerous contractors and consultants developing their own tools. However, as this plethora of choice continues, we need to strive for consistency and utilising the same tools, to feed results into the shared benchmarking databases, such as BCIS Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD).
The industry is united in its agreement on the need to consistently report and reduce. A proposed amendment to building regulations which would require developers to report on and reduce whole life embodied carbon in projects, would drive the industry in the right direction. With the Grid gradually decarbonising, the relative contribution of embodied impacts of materials is increasing. However, analysing and acting on embodied carbon impacts is often seen as too difficult and conversations around operational carbon often occur in isolation from embodied carbon.
Challenges in Whole Life Carbon Management
Despite encouraging progress, the industry still has a long way to go to effectively manage whole life carbon emissions. One challenge is the lack of government-led incentives and policy uncertainty that is creating unwanted hesitancy in the uptake of WLCA. Without legal mandates, there is market caution to invest in innovative, low-carbon alternatives for key construction materials. If this continues, the industry is at risk of losing momentum (and enthusiasm!) in its push for decarbonisation.
Part of this problem lies across the supply chain. Suppliers are nervous over the initial burden of investing in the development of low-carbon alternatives, despite increasing evidence showing savings on associated energy costs over time. This perspective, however, is highly dependent on which timeframe (or in WLCA terms, ‘reference study period’) is being referred to when analysing comparisons of cost vs carbon.
Long term value rather than short-termism
So, as 2025 continues, my advice to clients and to the industry as a whole is action not just thought, let’s move forward, regardless of whether we are mandated to do so, put long-term value at the core, rather than short-termism. Whole life carbon analysis is imperative in order to identify and prioritise opportunities for innovation in materials and construction methods and build towards a real sustainable future.
This is an abridged version of an article that first appeared in Construction Management. Visit our Sustainability page to find out more about our service.
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