Compliance with the World’s First Specification for Managing Infrastructure Carbon

The most recent Crossrail project to come live ATC-C695 is the first Costain project to have been formally recognised as compliant with the principles of the PAS 2080:2016 by Circular Ecology.

It is increasingly clear that cutting carbon cuts costs. A causal link was identified in the Treasury’s ‘Infrastructure Carbon Review’ (ICR) in 2013. Research for the ICR conducted by the Green Construction Board’s (GCB) Infrastructure Working Group concluded that if the UK infrastructure industry adopted the practices pioneered by those leading on carbon reduction, it would benefit the UK economy by almost £1.5bn per year!

The review also identified that the infrastructure industry controls 16% of the UK’s total carbon emissions and has influence over a further 37%. This total impact figure of 53% is set to grow to 90% by 2050, due to decarbonisation in other sectors.

The GCB in collaboration with the British Standards Institute (BSI) developed the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2080 – Carbon Management in Infrastructure, the world’s first specification for managing infrastructure carbon looking to cut cost, improve efficiency and slow climate change.

The design and environment teams have been working collaboratively to undertake a whole project carbon assessment to baseline the carbon embodied within the construction of the site’s three main buildings as well as the bulk ground works against £ spend. This has enabled the designers to take into account embodied carbon and whole life carbon from the design stage of the project and identify carbon and cost saving opportunities throughout the construction stage.