The Square in Hale Barns is a new mixed use development comprising of a supermarket, retail units and residential apartments in Manchester.
Greengage were commissioned to develop a replicable methodology for calculating the ‘cradle to site’ embodied carbon of the construction. This involved working to BS EN 15978:2011, the best practice standard for the calculation and reporting of embodied carbon. The study incorporated the ‘product’ and ‘manufacture’ building lifecycle stages and used data from construction quantities, transport and site energy use. Greengage’s bespoke embodied carbon calculator was adapted for the project so that carbon hot spots could be identified in terms of key building components or life cycle stages.
The work resulted in the calculation of a total embodied carbon value for the project based upon quantities data as well as materials data collected from the main contractor. Recommendations for how the embodied carbon can be reduced on future projects were also provided. This included the replacement of key materials with lower carbon alternatives, alterations to the design which will reduce the total quantity of materials and increasing the use of recycled materials. The methodology has since been replicated on other projects for the client, allowing for consistent measurement and benchmarking.