BYTNAR - TALKS
EPISODE: 038 - APPROVED DOCUMENT Z - WHOLE LIFE CARBON
This episode is for people who want to know more about the proposal of Approved Document Z
You should like this episode if you ask yourself questions like:
What is the impact of construction materials on UK greenhouse gas emissions?
How do whole-life carbon requirements affect construction projects in the UK?
What is the difference between embodied carbon and operational carbon in buildings?
What are the A1-A5, B1-B7, C1-C4, and D lifecycle modules in BS EN 15978?
What are the proposed requirements Z1 and Z2 for carbon assessment and carbon intensity?
When will the whole-life carbon regulations (Z1 and Z2) come into effect in the UK?
How does the RICS Professional Standard define whole-life carbon assessment?
What is the role of biogenic carbon in whole-life carbon assessments?
How will the UK government enforce carbon reporting for construction projects?
This is Bytnar Talks the Engineer Takes on Construction Episode 38 hi I'm Piotr Bytnar each day I help my clients plan and design building projects through Bytnar limited a Consulting Chartered Structural Engineers practice my biggest passion and the cornerstone on which I've built my business is finding clever solutions for construction projects I am a chartered structural engineer and a budding software developer so you can rest assured that I will strive to talk about the best practices and the use of new technologies in the industry and if you're embarking on a construction project or are involved in planning designing and building the world around us you'll find this podcast useful. Aprooved document Z whole life carbon hi guys and welcome to bitnar talks your favorite podcast on all matters of architecture engineering and construction it is Thursday the 5th of December 2024 and I'm here back with you with the 38th episode and information on approved document Z whole life carbon who does not love the period towards Christmas break break we are all working on the Full Throttle delivering designs and solutions to sites all over the place just so everything is nicely tied up before the curtain Falls and most of us go for a welld deserved break I'm planning to close the year with 40 episodes of this podcast and restart recording the second week of January so let's start with the delivery of this one but before before I move forward to the new material let's recap the past episode in the last episode I talked about the approved document seven materials and workmanship that are covered in two sections section one deals with materials Web building regulation tells us we need to use materials that are fit for purpose no brainer there really is there we are flexible on the use of the material though as long as we meet performance and functional requirements compliance can be demonstrated through the use of C marking British standards International standards with proper justification of their appropriability if there is such a word to the British Market independent certifications or historical performance evidence of the material in use authorities May inspect materials under regulation 46 or impose conditions to ensure safety for the use of more perishable materials that need to be accessible for the maintenance and rep replacement and repair whenever needed some further restrictions are applicable to combustible materials in tall residential buildings but we well know about this one we're talking buildings over 11 M and obviously 18 M section two workmanship deals with guess what well workmanship right which basically needs to be good and proper standard to ensure safety and functionality can be fulfilled by following the guidance of C marking standards or following British standard 8,000 series independent or propriety certification schemes are also a very good starting point quality can be further verified through robust Management Systems P performance and Regulatory tests like sound insulation testing ventilation or pressure testing the British standard 8000 series outline detail workmanship standards across various construction tasks covering things like principle and specifications of like masonry Roofing glazing drainage and so on in this episode I will move to the possible future appro approved document the approved document Z whole life carbon so without further Ado let's dive straight into this so the world is changing dear friends we reached the Apex of growth and now we look into making things better for us all you know most of us can buy a car a home or at least rent one right or have an avocado and egg once you get to this level of development it does not really make sense to just keep on going the old ways and when you have a Global Information exchange and most known and most know about things having a global impact a global is discussion follows straight after about things of the daily occurrences and things like big disasters are very quickly spread throughout the land now on the topic of global warming or perhaps cutting ourselves away from the dictatorship world or OPEC hydrocarbon dependencies and whether building more when there is enough is a good idea you will find many opinions and the proposed approved document Z is such an opinion with a differ It actually drives a solution whether the solution is good or bad there is still time to see but for certain if we do not measure what we do we will have no clue where we are heading several European countries do it already but hey European Union likes to formalize everything don't they but on this front I trust they are right the information on the proposed document as well as the actual document proposal can be found on parten z. website you can head to this space to endorse the initiative I have already frankly without this legislation we will maintain the status quo of wasters and and and inconsiderate monkeys just because we can as long as the investments will pay with dividends we will continue to build wastefully in my over 10e career in the construction industry I have have learned that finance and legislation are the only forces that matter and we can certainly influence legislation to make that change all right so let's have a look into the nitty-gritty of this proposal so what is the fuz all about it's about not so clever use of materials according to information provided by the institution of Structural Engineers 10% of the UK total greenhouse gas emissions is due to the creation and use of construction materials given an impressive 64 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year which is quite a substantial number nearly on par with Agriculture and electricity Supply according to government data from 2023 the rate of reduction of emissions is also lagging behind the electricity and the industrial sector so the idea is to drive that downward with a positive trend even further than we are doing right now and doing so through the legislation The Proposal is rather short and sweet as it should be and I'm Revis in and I'm reviewing its proposal revision number two of 31st of January of this year The Godly year 2024 The Proposal proposes right proposal proposes blah blah blah dealing with the matter in two requirements requirement Z1 treated on carbon assessment and requirement Z2 dealing with carbon intensity the idea is to give meaning to the whole life carbon requirements for projects with a gross internal area of th000 square m or more or such that create more than 10 dwellings it is being proposed to contain to contain it within three sections section one is to set out the relevant legislation and shows us steps to demonstrate compliance in section two we are in form of the consideration to apply to the whole life carbon assessment using the life cycle module nomenclature of bs1 15978 sustainability of construction Works assessment of environmental performance of buildings calculation method the modules are A1 to A5 B1 to B7 C1 to C4 and D I will finish this episode by expanding slightly on each and every single one of them it is envisaged that requirement Z1 will kick in from the 1st of January 20126 and the requirement Z2 2 years later the actual writing of the requirement does seem to be a little too little I would rather like to see an implementation of minimum digital information for all buildings applied at certain intervals say 5 years no matter the size and type of building in addition and per perhaps a provision of showing an alternative of minimized embodied carbon version of that building as this will help us track the actual feasibility of construction anyhow I will read you the proposal so you make your own judgment The Proposal as laid down to be put into the legislation the requirement Z1 carbon assessment whole life carbon emission shall be assessed and reported for the building and any other part of the project where building regulations apply and requirement Z2 carbon intensity reasonable provision shall be made for the minimization of carbon emissions the intention behind document is to level the playing field when it comes to the assessment of the buildings by using the same standards in evaluation and reporting to drive the change by decreasing The Upfront abod Cabo intensity of the building to reason reasonably achievable levels in section one we are asked to fill in the form with the whole life carbon data as defined in bn5 978 so A's B's C's and D's information we are told that a should not exceed the set limit section two treats on the whole life carbon asset assessment we are given a handy table to fill in and we are sent to the Rick's Professional Standards for the whole life carbon assessment for the build environment second edition for how information with a slightly tweak to the method described in the module B6 where the energy usage should be evaluated to approv document L we are reminded that sequestration should not form part of The Upfront upfront carbon calcul the Builder is made responsible for reporting on as designed and ASB buil whole life carbon using standard factors for The Upfront determination and actual environment product declaration for the as buil report which should be submitted digitally to a governmental portal section three sets limits for The Upfront embodied carbon emissions that is modules Ace the assessment should be made against the nationally set performance levels these levels are not yet set and will require data from the industry for the initial assessment the period for the Gathering of initial data is envisaged to be 2 years and then Revisited every 3 years to allow Improvement but to control the level to reasonable level for most of the industry while stopping the wars offenders in their trucks the idea a is to extend the limits across most modules with time but starting with the ace we'll do for now okay what are the modules about then according to rck Rick cleverly made several distinctions and created n manure of its own I will go with it bit by bit breaking the whole thing down we start with whole life carbon assessment information which simply means all information that that grouping is then divided into whole life carbon AKA system boundary and separately information beyond beyond the construction Works life cycle AKA benefits and loads beyond the system boundary AKA life cycle D there are four life cycles a b c and d within all of them the biogenic carbon you know the stuff sequestered within the material is reported on separately the life cycle D is divided further into module D1 which covers net output flows from reusing the physical elements in any way shape or form possible and module D2 covers resources generation of that building throughout its use now the whole life carbon assessment information consists of the whole life carbon assessment and the life cycle D treated on separately in other words the actual stuff that is used by the creation operation and the communion of the Comm bloody hell the commissioning of a building and the stuff that can be reused and the good stuff building produced now the whole life carbon section makes a distinction between the embodied carbon operational carbon and user carbon breaking down the embodied carbon AKA life cycle embodied carbon it is covered by life cycle a AKA upfront carbon B AKA inuse carbon and C AKA end of life carbon life cycle a further divides into preconstruction Stage a0 covering preliminaries and Design produ stage A1 to A3 so raw materials Supply transport and Manufacturing in use stage B1 to B5 so use of the building maintenance repair replacement refurbishment stage C1 to C4 so deconstruction and demolition transport waste processing and Disposal operational car carbon are treated separately from the embodied carbon is contained in modules B6 and B7 so operational energy and operational water and treat it separately with user carbon which is covered in module B8 meaning activities not covered in modules B1 to B7 you know things like commuting service vehicles and all other on ilary stuff associated with the building use so this is it folks the potentials of approved document Z whole life Carbon Let's summon up so the proposal addresses the significant contribution of construction materials to the UK's greenhouse gas emissions aiming to drive reductions through standardized approach and legislation it introduces requirement Z1 that mandates whole life carbon assessments for buildings over 1,000 M square or developments with more than 10 dwellings hopefully starting January 2026 and requirement Z2 focusing on minimizing car carbon intensity hopefully effective from 2028 the standard leverage the bsn1 15978 framework requiring life cycle carbon data module A1 to A5 B1 to B7 C1 to C4 and D1 and 2 and emphasizing upfront embodied carbon limits in early phases the modules a Builders must report both designed and actual carbon data digitally the framework used is the Rick's professional standard which guides the assessment separated embodying carbon operational and using user related carbon impacts modules are grouped by life cycle life life cycle a upfront embodied carbon covers production and construction B inuse carbon includes operation and maintenance C end of life carbon addresses Demolition and Disposal and D evaluates reuse and resource generation benefits operational energy and water are treated as separate entities in module B6 and B7 with user activities impacts in module B8 initial performance levels will be set after 2 years of data collection with review use every 3 years thereafter to refine benchmarks the standardized iterative approach aims to curb the worst practices while while enabling industrywide progress towards sustainability so undoubtedly we need to visit Rick's whole life carbon assessment for the build environment published standard to get a little bit more acquainted with it and also have a look into the building environment carbon database 2 which is available for free online I will leave you with a perhaps different frame of mind than the one you had before as some will say the grid becomes Greener and Greener so the operational carbon becomes and less important so will the production of materials become less carbon heavy but if that is the case should we not still push for better buildings sure we should just because something is more environmentally neutral does not mean we should abuse it use in the next episode I will talk about the building safety act I hope you enjoyed this episode making sure the buildings are considered wholesomely and adding some limits to the use of materials makes sense does it not in a future episode epode I will go through the carbon assessment of the building so you have a better appreciation of this also if you have any questions reach out to me on LinkedIn or send me an email I'm more than happy to help you out in bitna we deal with planning designing and managing of your projects and we are always glad to facilitate a free initial consultation to steer you in the right direction visit www.but now.co and reach out to us whether your question is if we can help you with your project or what should I do we will we will be able to give you a piece of no obligatory advice at bitna we help our clients design and execute their dream homes or Investments if your building is falling apart we can also help investigate the reasons behind it and to provide you with an appropriate strategy design and specifications for the repair thank you again for listening please vote voice up your opinions I'm waiting for you on LinkedIn and I want to hear from you see you next week Bytnar Designs The World Around You, Toodloo!
Piotr Bytnar BEng (Hons) MSc CEng MIStructE
Chartered Structural Engineer who deals with the Architecture of buildings. His Master's Studies led him to an in-depth understanding of risk and contract arrangements in construction as well as specialist knowledge in soil mechanics.
He and his team help homeowners and property developers to design and deliver construction projects reducing waste in time and the cost. He believes that the construction project is an iterative process that can be well managed and it is best managed if all the aspects of the project definition and management are dealt with in-house or coordinated by one organisation. His team works to all stages of RIBA and ISTRUCTE stages of work and enables contractors to deliver projects on-site providing risk evaluations, methodologies for execution of works and temporary works designs.
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