Supporting Defra through carbon measurement

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has launched its ambitious Timber in Construction Roadmap – a plan to encourage the use of homegrown timber in sustainable construction.

RICS, as a member of the working group alongside housing and environmental stakeholders, supported Defra in the development of the roadmap to ensure a balanced approach was taken to meeting our housing needs, whilst sourcing sustainable construction materials.

The use of timber in construction, whether domestically grown or important offers benefits in terms of material cost and reliability – but understandably comes with challenges over the sourcing of such products. That’s why the importance of data in developing any timber strategy is so vital, and why the roadmap encourages the use of the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment and the Built Environment Carbon Database.

As part of gathering this evidence base, we need to ensure that the carbon impact data for all construction materials, including timber, is robust and used consistently.

For timber specifically, this includes ensuring that environmental product declaration data for timber products is comprehensive and consistent; understanding the impact of timber construction on a building’s lifespan and subsequent impact on demolition or construction rates and associated carbon emissions; and understanding the impact of timber construction on transport emissions. – Defra, Timber in Construction Roadmap

The 2^nd edition of the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment, supported with the Department for Transport, launched in September 2023, builds on the success of the first edition and now covers all building types and infrastructure throughout its lifecycle. It helps create a consistent approach towards carbon measurement and a data-led argument for the use of timber in developments.

Meanwhile, the Built Environment Carbon Database supports efforts to decarbonise construction by providing access to product and project-level data, and a platform to share the results of your assessments and compare with similar projects.