The future of construction

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Embodied carbon is the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with materials and construction processes throughout the whole lifecycle of a building or infrastructure. It includes any CO2 created during the manufacturing of building materials (material extraction, transport to manufacturer, manufacturing), the transport of those materials to the job site, and the construction practices used. 

The world’s building stock is expected to double by 2060, the equivalent to adding an entire New York City to the planet every month for the next 40 years. 

Professor Sean Smith has a career spanning building economics, medical acoustics, and future new housing and timber and forest industries.  His current focus: the future of construction. 

Professor Sean Smith is Chair of Future Construction (School of Engineering) as well as the Director of the Centre for Future Infrastructure (Edinburgh Futures Institute) at the University of Edinburgh. A centre focused on creating an intellectual hub for ideas and a workshop for forging those ideas into practical opportunities and applications, bringing together stakeholders from across the University sector, industry, government and beyond.

He is also Chair of the Infrastructure and Environment thematic leadership group within the Scottish Research Partnership for Engineering (SRPe). The SRPe Infrastructure & Environment Thematic Leadership Group (OE-TLG) is a national research resource that provides knowledge and expertise to Government and industry, as well as to the wider UK and international resource communities.

Professor Sean has recently led two research projects that have helped government policy towards their ambitious 2045 net-zero targets at both a local and Scottish national level. 

Midlothian Council worked with the University to identify the embodied carbon within recycling waste streams. Annual waste for local authorities can represent between 3 and up to 9% of annual carbon emissions, depending on whether they are the main processors, or if they subcontract management and process of waste streams. 

The information gained could be used to assist in the net-zero journey and future outcomes. The project was supported by DDI Data Platforms programme for the South East Scotland City Region Deal. 

Professor Sean led a project to analyse the data types of recycled waste, circular economy usage and equivalent material embodied carbon or energy. 

Key findings:  

• 94% of recycling waste collected by the council was being utilised in upcycle uses and additional products  
• The embodied carbon of these recycled materials was 40.8 million kilos (40.8 thousand tonnes) of equivalent C02  
• The annual embodied carbon and energy savings were equivalent to recharging 5 billion smartphones, or driving 103 million car miles, or heating 5,000 homes per year  
• 18 organisations and companies spread across Midlothian and Scotland utilise the recycled waste materials into new products and processes, supporting jobs, businesses and the environment  

On a Scottish level to meet the ambitious 2045 targets, Scotland needs to upgrade and retrofit approximately 2.6 million homes, potentially 113,000 homes each year. These proposals have been included in the Scottish Government strategy document ‘Achieving Net Zero in Social Housing’.

These proposals were developed on the back of research by Professor Sean Smith. His group’s research findings recommended the establishment of a task force to retrofit housing to meet Scotland’s ambitious net-zero targets. Details include the technical design, energy performance targets and net-zero housing objectives.

The task force that Professor Smith calls for would focus delivery on the major Scottish housing archetypes reaching across both urban and rural Scotland. A national retrofit task force of this scale would be the first of its kind and would include a wide range of social housing, industry, energy experts and skills development teams within a singular team approach.

Image: Adobe Stock / Антон Брехов