What is Operational Carbon?
When considering the amount of carbon buildings are accountable for, there is an important distinction between operational and embodied carbon; these two numbers are combined to create the total carbon footprint of a building over its lifetime. This is becoming increasingly important data for ESG scores and net-zero targets.
Embodied carbon refers to the carbon involved in the process of building, maintaining and demolishing a building throughout its lifecycle. Learn more here.
Operational carbon is the carbon emitted throughout the operational life of the building. On average, this has always been the largest chunk of emissions at approx. 28%; however, it is predicted that by 2050 embodied carbon will match the emissions rising from an average of 11% (Spot 2020). Both need to be addressed to help combat climate change. Part of this will require a major retrofit programme, reusing current buildings, upgrading and optimising services and systems rather than demolishing and starting again (this saves a considerable amount of carbon over a building’s lifecycle).
Part L
In addition, lighting control/monitoring is now mandatory in buildings. On 15th June 2022, Part L of the Building Regulations 2010 came into effect. These new standards set out regulations for lighting energy performance in both new and existing buildings. The aim is to improve insight and reduce carbon emitted from the lighting system.
It states that lighting should be metered by one of the following methods:
1) Dedicated lighting circuits
2) Local power meters, which should be coupled with or integrated with the lighting controllers of a lighting management system
3) A lighting management system that can calculate the consumed energy or make this information available to a building management system.
This is part of the government's plan to improve the operational energy efficiency of buildings and work towards net zero targets.
Part L states:
👉Unoccupied spaces should have automatic controls to turn the general lighting off when the space is not in use (e.g. through presence detection).
👉Occupied spaces should have automatic controls (where suitable) for the use of the space.
👉General lighting in occupied spaces should have daylight controls (e.g. photo-switching and dimming) for parts of the space which are likely to receive high levels of natural light.
👉Display lighting should be controlled on dedicated circuits so that it can be switched separately from general lighting used for illuminance.
At amBX, our software-only, protocol agnostic lighting controls deliver all of the above and more. We can pass lighting data to other systems in a building to trigger more efficient operations and assist with ESG reporting. Learn more about how amBX can help.
Lighting is one of many factors that make up operational carbon in buildings. It is calculated by gathering energy data from the sources used to keep the building warm, ventilated, powered and lit. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions must be prioritised. The government have set out ambitious targets to reduce CO2 by 68% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. However, up until recently, there has been a lack of policies/standards introduced to force the industry to take action and reduce carbon. COP26 in 2021 cast a renewed focus on the building and construction industry and introduced new conversations and ideas.
A new British Standard (BS 40101) was released in February 2022, which offers guidance for energy-efficiency standards of occupied and operational buildings, but the lack of standardisation can be confusing for stakeholders. They can be left wondering which guidelines, policies or standards to follow.
This lack of direction and governance (prior to part L being updated) has resulted in many leading businesses publishing their own strategies. LETI published guidance for operational energy design recommendations in various types of buildings. Below is a snapshot of their recommendations for commercial offices (LETI 2020).
Other organisations that have created their own frameworks include RIBA and the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). amBX is now part of the UKGBC’s Solutions Library, which contains a range of environmental products and systems that construction stakeholders can use for research, guidance and implementation.
RIBA has outlined speculative estimations to demonstrate the relationship between operational and embodied carbon. The diagram below highlights that in offices, 15% of CO2 is from unregulated emissions. Many buildings still don’t know how much carbon they are emitting; they do not have enough/or accurate data to generate a current operational picture.
Utilising building data is essential to provide insight and clarity around energy consumption. A building management system that is interoperable should be deployed that unifies data from multiple systems; overlaying this with an analytics platform will allow facility managers to set out an improvement strategy which will actively reduce operational carbon. Combining this with renewable energy sources (where possible) and educating occupants within the building will allow significant gains to be achieved. Further advances in technology such as AI, ML and robotics will optimise the process further and will become more readily available as the industry adapts and begins to truly prioritise sustainability.