Digital Transformation and Sustainability in Construction | Lucy Homer, Lendlease

Significantly, depending on the project, the sequencing of the steps will vary.

As things stand, we know from talking to funders that construction is seen as the riskiest investment option by far.Conversely, we know there’s a great deal of interest in financing clean technology, so there’s a lot of money going into an associated industry.

Construction Platform design offers a huge opportunity, because if we could demonstrate a consistent ability to deliver things to price and budget, investors would view construction differently.As a result, this could see investors flooding towards construction, as they would get a healthy return on their investment.There’s also the potential for the creation of a virtuous circle, whereby investment boosts spending on construction, which creates jobs and skills.

This would have a bigger, beneficial impact on society.. An increase in investment should also free up more money for research and development.Construction has famously low investment in R&D, which increases the risk profile.

As most projects are currently prototypes, there is very little opportunity to test something out before it becomes a live project.

On our current project for Landsec, we’ve witnessed the benefits of prototyping everything in advance at our testing facility in Ropley.These characteristics, when coupled with a focus on procuring low embodied carbon materials and equipment, can deliver objectively low embodied carbon designs, despite the additional material volume.. Based on the above, it can be observed that some of the inherent characteristics of Passivhaus increase embodied carbon whilst others reduce it.

Taking a 200 m2 house, (10 m x 10 m x 2 storeys, 40 % WWR) as an example, Bryden Wood has done a rough estimation of the impact that Passivhaus distinctive strategies have on embodied carbon:.Adding triple glazing instead of double glazing would increase carbon around 6 kgCO2/m2 over its lifetime.

Adding a MVHR and ductwork would increase carbon by 6.5 kgCO2/m2.Adding a heat pump would increase carbon by 3.5 kgCO2/m2.