Summary
On Tuesday 18th June 2024 we were jined by life cycle analysis expert Dr Jane Anderson and ASBP’s Simon Corbey and Katherine Adams for a ‘talking heads’ webinar on the RICS whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) standard and circularity.
Jane was one of the main co-authors of the industry-leading RICS Professional Standard which is based on EN 15978 and aims to ensure consistency and accurate carbon measurement in the built environment.
Discussion covered questions such as:
- How does RICS cover circularity at end of life and next life? What are the strengths and weaknesses?
- What is the new submodule A5.1 Preconstruction demolition and how should this be measured?
- How good is the data for end of life e.g. amounts reused, recycled, deconstruction/demolition impacts?
- How can we account for carbon in the existing building stock and benefits from building retention, reusing or recycling these materials?
- Whether Module D, which reports the potential loads and benefits from reusing or recycling materials and components at end of life, is fit for purpose?
- How important is Module C and D in relation to the other modules in terms of impact/significance?
- What other approaches could be adopted to enable the measurement of circularity within WLCA?
Our expert speakers used a few scenarios to discuss these questions.
We recommend attendees familiarise themselves with the WLCA standard before watching this webinar as the discussions will get into the detail of the document.