Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
The Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) has launched its free-to-access carbon database and is asking for the industry to unite behind it.
The first data repository of its kind, it’s Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD) is designed to help drive down carbon emissions by enabling users to both submit data to, and download data from it, to facilitate consistent carbon estimating and benchmarking.
BCIS CEO James Fiske, who chairs the BECD steering group said: “The built environment industry has a moral and ethical responsibility to take action. In the absence of the government taking a lead and mandating carbon assessments, it’s really up to us as an industry to drive this forward.
“About 40% of global greenhouse emissions come from the built environment and, if we don’t do anything about it, that’s predicted to double by 2050.”
It has been funded and developed by BCIS in collaboration with a range of leading organisations and professional bodies from across the built environment over the last three years.
During its live launch of the BECD, a webinar with an audience of almost 800 people, attendees were polled on their perceptions of and current practices around carbon measurement and reporting.
Encouragingly, 76% said they, or their organisation, would not scale back their own approach to carbon reduction in light of the government’s recent change of net zero strategy, though 19% said they didn’t know if they would. Most attendees (84%) said they did not support the government’s new strategy.
The majority of respondents said whole-life carbon assessments should either already be mandatory for all UK construction projects (44%) or be made mandatory within 12 months (20%).
“We have to ensure that, regardless of what job we’re fulfilling in the industry, we all influence the reduction of carbon emissions in one way, shape or form,” added Fiske.
