No silver bullet: Cutting carbon in construction starts with better decisions

16 May 2025

The built environment produces around 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. These come from every stage of the construction process: making materials, building, operating, maintaining, and eventually demolishing.

If the UK is going to hit net zero by 2050, this has to change.

At ESG Live, I joined a panel to explore what the construction sector can do to reduce its carbon impact. Here’s what we discussed.

Make the case for low carbon, with facts

Every project is different. Many will be looking to achieve sustainability standards, but cost may also be a factor. Our role is to help clients weigh both.

The key is to bring robust data, on both cost and carbon.

Developers often focus on meeting investor or tenant expectations. Public bodies and owner occupiers tend to value savings over a building’s lifetime. When we can show the long-term benefit of a lower-carbon option, even if it costs more upfront, the conversation shifts.

When designing our home at 150 Holborn, we assessed every component for both cost and carbon impact. We compared standard chillers with more efficient turbo models. The latter cost more at the start but would save energy, money and carbon over 60 years. We made the case and chose the greener option.

People matter as much as design

We’ve come a long way in accounting for whole-life carbon, both embodied and operational. But we still overlook how people use buildings.

Design can only take us so far. If systems aren’t set up properly or used as intended, buildings underperform in both cost and carbon.

At 150 Holborn, we spotted an air handling unit running far longer than needed. It had been incorrectly set up. Thanks to monitoring tech, we fixed it fast. But in most buildings, that fault might have gone unnoticed for months.

Designing a low-carbon building is just the start. You need to commission it properly, monitor performance, and respond to what the data tells you.

Top-down meets bottom-up

The industry is pushing for change. We heard examples on the panel, from reusing materials to switching to low-carbon alternatives.

But market forces alone won’t always deliver the necessary change, particularly for secondary and tertiary buildings which have had minimal investment for decades.

That’s where government incentives and smart regulation are essential. The truth is, we can’t meet climate targets by focusing on new builds alone. We need to tackle the existing stock, especially the underperforming tertiary assets.

It’s not about unicorn tech

Many of the solutions already exist. What we need now is better decision-making.

That means questioning every choice, understanding long-term impacts, and balancing cost with carbon. Not just once, but across the entire lifecycle.

We don’t need a breakthrough. We need to act.

We know what to do. Let’s get on with it.

Listen to the full recording of Adam’s panel at ESG Live, or get in touch to talk more: [email protected]