A highlight of this year’s ARBS seminar program is a keynote delivered by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) president, Adrian Catchpole.
His presentation is entitled Embodied Carbon & Climate Resilience in HVAC and will be delivered on day two of the exhibition.
The presentation will provide valuable insights from a global leader in the field.
Participants will discover how HVAC practices can contribute to a sustainable future on a worldwide scale.
Don't miss this opportunity to broaden your perspective and be part of the global conversation on climate-conscious HVAC solutions.
Catchpole is the director of Johns Slater and Haward. He has more than 30 years experience working on a wide range of projects.
As CIBSE president, he highlights the need to inspire and support the next generation of engineers to help society solve the big technical and scientific challenges of today and tomorrow.
His presentation is certainly timely as more engineers, architects and developers are forced to measure embodied carbon in their designs.
Just last year the Sustainable Buildings State Environment Planning Policy was introduced in New South Wales.
It’s clear the regulatory landscape has shifted from energy efficiency to reducing embodied carbon.
University of NSW associate professor, Philip Oldfield, who is head of the School of Built Environment, said construction needs to have the smallest possible impact on the environment.
“Every square metre we build has a carbon footprint, and that can be quite high, because the materials we rely on to construct buildings are very carbon intensive. But we can’t simply stop building,” he said.
Embodied carbon is the greenhouse gas emissions associated with creating a building, maintaining it over its life, and eventually demolishing the building.
The Australian construction industry is responsible for 18.1 per cent of the national carbon footprint or more than 90 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year.
“We have relatively mature building regulations focused on reducing operating emissions. But there are very few regulations concerning embodied emissions anywhere in the world,” Oldfield said.
“Any new building constructed in Australia today, we expect at least half of its total carbon footprint over its life will be embodied carbon, possibly even more.”
The World Green Buildings Council (WGBC) has set a target for all new buildings to be net zero operationally by 2030. What this means is the carbon footprint of buildings will effectively be all about embodied carbon.
Oldfield said this necessitates a big shift in thinking especially with the world population growing and increased urbanisation.