Understanding our site impacts
To understand our carbon emission impacts due both to the design of dwellings and during the construction phase of development, we commissioned an initial assessment at a typical medium size site. The scope included carbon equivalent emissions arising during construction and as a result of the design and build including:
- deliveries to site, embodied emissions of materials, on-site energy consumption, commuting, waste removal and disposal, plus
- predicted on-going energy use during a 60-year occupation of the dwellings.
The assessment methodology followed the reporting principles and guidelines of the WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Summary of site emissions
Unsurprisingly, the ongoing energy consumption in a dwelling over a 60-year period was estimated to give rise to the largest proportion of total emissions at 78%. The embodied carbon of the main construction materials was the next largest source at 14%. Delivery of materials to site was the other significant emissions source at 7%. Other remaining sources made up less than 2% which included commuting of workers (including Crest Nicholson employees and sub-contractors), removal and disposal of construction waste, and diesel used by on-site machinery and vehicles.
This was our first assessment of this kind and, although the development type chosen influences the results, it gives a strong indication of the orders of magnitude of emissions arising from different activities, thus informing our emissions reductions strategy. Next year we intend to repeat the exercise for different development types.
One of the key challenges we faced in conducting the assessment was getting robust data. We have since put improved systems in place to collect data relating to on-site energy and water consumption, including individual plots, site compounds and sales suites. We will report our first year’s data at the end of 2009.
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