Real-time reporting of embodied carbon emissions
Aggregate Industries play key role in new landmark carbon calculation reporting solution
AGGREGATE Industries have played a pivotal role in the development of a landmark new solution designed to provide automated, real-time reporting of embodied carbon emissions. Formed in spring 2022, the Scope 3 initiative aims to drive real climate action by providing detailed, scientific embodied carbon emission calculations for the first time, as part of the automated invoice process.
Headed up by construction software specialists Causeway Technologies, the project, which is due for completion next year, is being developed in collaboration with Balfour Beatty, Galliford Try, and Morgan Sindall, alongside Aggregate Industries as a major supplier.
Dr Adam O’Rourke, Causeway’s emerging technologies consultant, commented: ‘As the net-zero mandate grows, it’s vital that construction begins to tackle embodied carbon emissions head on. Unfortunately, embodied carbon is incredibly difficult to measure and track due to the vast variants involved – the result being a lack of confidence in the various measurement systems available, with firms often overestimating it as a precaution.
‘This Scope 3 initiative seeks to address the challenge by developing a solution which is able to provide wholly accurate, scientifically led embodied carbon measurement in real time reporting across projects as part of the invoice process.’
In initial tests, Causeway worked with samples of 25,000 invoices from all involved stakeholders, focusing on materials with the highest carbon impact. Crucially, Aggregate Industries’ unique Your Carbon Report provided a best-practice example as part of the process – the system being capable of addressing embodied carbon figures down to the line-level items such as distance to plant, plant energy, and distribution.
Dr O’Rourke added: ‘Aggregate Industries’ carbon reporting played a pivotal role in informing some of the strategic decision-making, thanks to the sheer level of detail and accuracy. While some suppliers tend to offer a standard carbon factor metric, with Aggregate Industries the measuring covers everything from the individual components of each different product and plant through to the distance to plant, raw material values, plant energy, and distribution to site – and all in real time.’
Due for a formal launch next year, the Scope 3 initiative’s new software solution will offer a credible, verifiable, efficient, and scalable way to measure Scope 3 emissions in real time, using invoice data automatically extracted from Causeway Tradex.
The companies collaborating on the initiative are currently engaging with suppliers, as well as validating and testing elements of this software. The project is also being supported via a knowledge partnership with the Engineering Department at the University of Bath.
Kirstin McCarthy, sustainability director at Aggregate Industries, commented: ‘Talking to our customers, we know that sustainability is a priority and that they want to take progressive action in their approach to embodied carbon. However, we also know that the current way of doing things can be daunting and difficult.
‘With this in mind, we purposely developed Your Carbon Report to provide our customers with the industry’s first true ‘cradle to grave’ measurement tool so they can see the embodied carbon impacts of their material choices quickly and with ease.
‘We are very proud to have been so heavily involved in the Scope 3 initiative, with our tool and our technical expertise helping to shape this important solution, and we look forward to helping bring it to market in due course.’
According to Aggregate Industries, their Your Carbon Report is the first carbon reporting tool that allows customers to access a ‘cradle to site’ assessment to calculate, track and report embodied carbon with ease. As a result, they say construction professionals can easily access and view exacting material carbon-emissions data for products manufactured by Aggregate Industries, thus allowing carbon-smart choices during design and procurement.
