First Published in Irish Construction News
CBRE (Ireland) Head of Sustainability and IGBC #BuildingLife ambassador Rachael McGinley speaks with Robbie Cousins (Irish Construction News) about the need for Irish construction to systematically address whole life carbon emissions in the built environment.
The Irish Green Building Council’s (IGBC’s) #BuildingLife campaign aims to achieve a broad range of private sector actions and public policy changes required to tackle the whole-life environmental impact of buildings.
The appointment of #BuildingLife ambassadors is an integral part of the campaign. The role of these ambassadors is to champion #BuildingLife goals and help drive change around sustainability across the construction industry.
#BuildingLife ambassador
As Head of Sustainability at CBRE, #BuildingLife ambassador Rachael McGinley works at the coalface of decarbonising our building stock by assisting investors, building occupiers and builders in becoming more aware of the whole life carbon (WLC) impacts of the choices they make.
“At CBRE, through our various teams, I advise clients and builders on how to reduce the carbon impacts of the buildings they are investing in or constructing. I also help the CBRE property management team reduce emissions associated with the buildings they manage. In practical terms, this means helping clients and colleagues view the decisions they make through a WLC impact lens.”
Background
A structural engineer, Rachael McGinley has previously worked with the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and for Australian sustainability consultancies. She is ideally suited to her #BuildingLife ambassadorial role, as she has both campaigning experience and technical know-how of the challenges involved in addressing the WLC of buildings.
“I have direct experience of sustainability campaigning, having worked for the GBCA, and direct construction experience as a structural engineer. While I now work in the commercial sector, I appreciate the challenges that bodies like IGBC face in getting their message across and the constraints that designers and builders work under when trying to be more sustainable.
“The #Buildinglife ambassadorship is a great honour for me. It allows me to engage with key decision makers about the burning construction issue of today and for the next 10 years and share my knowledge about the solutions that are available or should be introduced.”
Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap
Rachael McGinley says that although the built environment is responsible for 37% of Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions, the IGBC’s new ‘Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment in Ireland’ sets out a route to decarbonise Ireland’s built environment.
“Strong EU-wide legislation, such as NZEB for new builds, has laid the foundations for Ireland to move to a decarbonised construction sector with relative ease. The government’s National Retrofit programme with a multi-annual budget has provided certainty to the industry about energy renovation.
“The Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment in Ireland proposes a gradual move to a position where the WLC of the built environment is regulated. This will first involve mandated measurement of the WLC of developments before gradually introducing carbon reduction targets to move the sector towards carbon neutrality.
Rachael McGinley adds that to reduce the carbon emissions of existing building stock and planned developments, there needs to be standardised WLC measurement with benchmarking, and all construction products must have environmental product declarations (EPDs).
“More emphasis needs to be placed on making it beneficial for manufacturers and materials providers to provide EPDs for all of their products, as specifiers need product EPDs to make informed choices.”
A standard methodology
The new Roadmap proposes adopting a standard methodology to assess WLC in the built environment. There should also be a database with generic information on the carbon impact of all construction products, which would require the mandating of EPDs.
“We need to have the right tools and a standardised way of measuring WLC, McGinley explains. “With existing buildings, getting energy data, benchmarking, or just finding a baseline before moving to energy improvement can be challenging. There is still a lot of work to be done with benchmarking around existing building stock before we find long-term operational savings for existing buildings.”
She adds that a growing number of CBRE clients are looking at the all-of-life carbon of buildings.
“This may be because they’re targeting a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) or BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) accreditation, but it’s encouraging to see, as it means that the tools to measure the WLC of buildings from raw materials to decommissioning are in place and working.”
Harmonisation
Rachael McGinley points out that specifying should be made as simple and easily understandable as possible for everyone involved.
“It would be ideal as a region [Europe] if we could harmonise all aspects of achieving WLC reductions. This should start with a methodology to assess WLC in the built environment based on the EU Level(s) framework, which should also align with the requirements of sustainability rating tools and carbon frameworks. There should also be a complete database of building materials and products with all the necessary EPD information, so specifiers can compare like with like and easily select the best option to meet their needs.
“It should also be noted that having EPDs for all products means that if there is a supply issue with one, alternatives should be available. We cannot have a situation where a project is tied to one product because it has an EPD, while an alternative hasn’t. Choice addresses supply issues and keeps the market competitive.”
Skills
The #BuildingLife campaign is also about providing training, and the IGBC offers a wide range of training modules in critical areas, such as life cycle assessment (LCA).
“We need to improve carbon literacy amongst building professionals, procurers, and even in the finance sector. This can be done by upskilling building professionals and construction workers to address the environmental impact of buildings across their whole life cycle. For example, plumbers can be upskilled in heat pump installations, contractors in selecting lower impact materials and methods of construction and building professionals in life cycle assessment.”
Innovation
McGinley adds that the sector must become more familiar with the concept of life cycle assessment before it can move to the next level.
“We need to get the basics right first and know how the available tools work. There also needs to be a better understanding about why embodied carbon and whole life carbon are essential.
“As part of the familiarisation process, designers, contractors and suppliers should carry out comparative lifecycle assessments on competed projects to see how the tools work and what trade-offs could have been made. For example, improving the thermal performance of a building is great from an operational energy perspective, but what knock-on effect might it have had? Could this have increased the embodied carbon of the building?
“Rather than thinking about what’s the most cost-effective, carbon-effective way to construct a building and ignoring the operational carbon or the other way round, both can be assessed together.”
Quality data
“Currently, life cycle assessments (LCAs) are an integral part of new buildings achieving LEED certification. I would like to see this as standard for all new builds.
“At CBRE, we are also looking at solving retrofitting challenges for older commercial building stock. We will be investigating the WLC impact and cost implications of retrofitting a building rather than knocking it down.
“The CBRE UK and Ireland businesses will be net-zero by 2030, supporting our global 2030 targets. Critically this includes Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions and is verified as science-based. As part of this process, we will be offering a service to clients whereby they can start their carbon neutral journey.
“While it is good that we have set this target for our operations, we will have a more significant impact by helping our clients to do the same.
“As a #BuildingLife ambassador, I want to use the opportunity to help the Irish construction industry make the necessary changes to enable it move towards becoming zero carbon. I look forward to engaging with others in the sector on this to learn more and play a part in transforming construction into a net zero whole life carbon sector,” Rachael McGinley concludes.
#BuildingLife is a project led in Ireland by the Irish Green Building Council. The initiative aims to achieve the mix of privasector action and public policy necessary to tackle the whole-life impact of buildings. Learn more here.
