With the current drive towards measuring carbon, we like to believe that Henstaff are in the vanguard. We have been measuring and monitoring our carbon impact from the works we do on site. By measuring this aspect we can start to manage out Carbon and reduce the elements that we can do.
As part of Exemplar2020 drive we have set the operation carbon target for the scheme at 20TCO2eq. By monitoring the transport to and from site, Waste, electricity, water and any diesel usage on site we can ensure that we better this target and also, possibly more importantly, be able to share how through the Exemplar2020 platform.
But this only covers one aspect of the carbon impact of the building. The next element of our carbon budget is to look at how much saving has been made in re-utilising the existing structure. With the assistance of the Structural team at Mann Williams and their digital models we are starting to review and measure how big a saving this may be. As a contractor we are often brought in too late to impact on the embodied Carbon of what we build. Decisions have already been made, planning applied for on the basis of structure, frame and envelope and the procurement completed. So although we champion the CIOB’s 2030 Visionary project https://www.ciob.org/blog/ciob-2030-visionary-project-your-vision-our-goal and the current drive by the RIBA in their 2030 Climate Challenge https://www.architecture.com/about/policy/climate-action/2030-climate-challenge highlights the reuse and adaption of existing buildings as we are doing at our current site at Bethel Church in Newport.
Stitching in the new steel frame and anchoring to the exiting structure with hilti fixings to secure the new frame and existing structure become one element, we are going to work out what we actually saved and in TCO2eq
As a local contractor we feel the need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to ensure that our impact and those of our peers are in line with the aims of the Future Generations Act in Wales.
Resilient; prosperous; more equal; cohesive community; culture – 5 out of 7 isn’t bad.
