The Irish construction industry is facing a reckoning. As carbon reporting requirements tighten across the EU and public procurement increasingly demands transparency on embodied carbon, contractors and suppliers who have yet to engage with sustainability measurement may find themselves on the back foot.
But for those who move early, the rewards – commercial, reputational and environmental – could be substantial.
Across the construction products manufacturing sector in Ireland there can be a huge variance in preparedness for measuring and reporting on embodied carbon, says Eoghan Considine, specifications manager with Pipelife. “Larger companies may already have their own ESG [environmental, social and governance] reporting requirements which necessitate gathering of Scope 1, 2 and 3 information, as well as having the resource in place to carry out this analysis,” Considine says.
“In the wider sector, there is still a long tail of companies only beginning to engage with embodied-carbon measurement. Smaller suppliers often lack the technical expertise, certification infrastructure or data-collection systems needed.”
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Irish companies in the construction sector are becoming better prepared and more sophisticated in how they are approaching issues in relation to ESG, says Catriona Power, senior client solutions specialist, sustainable solutions, at Enterprise Ireland. “The calculation of the carbon embodiment of construction products is becoming an increasing deciding factor in procurement within the construction sector.”
Over the past number of years life-cycle assessments (LCA) have become a well-used tool for measuring carbon on projects, says Keith O’Flynn, group supply chain manager, Sisk. “Creating a baseline and then a project target allows contractors to push efficiency and innovation in reducing embodied carbon.
“Contractors go through a value-engineering process where initial designs are assessed multiple times to reduce costs and programme time. We can add reducing embodied carbon of materials to that list now and use software to showcase how much carbon has been saved or, in some cases, has increased. But the key is that it is measured so lessons can be learned for future projects.”
There is a growing trend towards off-site construction in residential and commercial projects, driven by a shortage of skilled labour on site, and the speed and efficiency of on-site construction utilising modern methods of construction (MMC), says Byrne. “In the residential space utilisation of timber frame and LGS [light gauge steel] provide lighter buildings, requiring fewer concrete foundations.
“There is a trend towards increasing the pre-manufactured value of off-site construction, to prefabricate the external facades as well in the factory, reducing the need for the traditional masonry exterior. Digitalisation enables the use of new materials with defined carbon embodiment, increasing further the sustainability of the build.”
Considine believes Irish contractors are at risk of losing bids to international firms that already have more advanced carbon accounting systems. “This is a risk to the industry, but not one that cannot be easily overcome with proactivity.
“Some external manufacturers may be working in markets where the carbon accounting systems are more mature than that in Ireland. For indigenous companies who move early, the opportunity is there to provide products that not only comply with the carbon reporting requirements, but due to the reduction of transport from overseas, can provide products with lower embodied carbon.”
For Irish manufacturers that do move early, this also creates an opportunity, Considine says. “Locally manufactured products can often demonstrate lower transport emissions and greater supply-chain transparency than imported alternatives.”
Low-carbon material targets are challenging but increasingly realistic, says Paddy Byrne, senior technologist, sustainable solutions, Enterprise Ireland. “The realism of these targets depends on factors including technological readiness of decarbonisation, policy pressure, market demand, supply-chain transformation, and alternative materials developments.
“The decarbonisation of the cement sector is particularly challenging, with capital intensive projects requiring significant investment.”
O’Flynn says the cost of low-carbon materials can be reduced if a contractor is engaged at an early stage in a project’s life cycle. “Contractors and their supply-chain partners are the experts in the materials used. Allowing them to engage with architects and designers early in the process can have the benefit of driving down emissions while limiting costs.”
A building’s thermal performance also counts. Pádraig Carroll, director of Synergie Futureproofing Solutions, says forward-thinking specifiers and developers can amend their designs now to embrace future proofed solutions to provide highly insulated, airtight and well-ventilated building fabrics which will cut energy bills and carbon emissions whilst also reducing dependence on renewable heating technologies.
“This would, by definition, result in future improvements in building regulations being simply bolted on to existing designs,” he adds. “It is worth noting that if the renewable technologies fail, are not adequately maintained or suffer from reduced performance over time, a well-insulated and airtight building will still provide a highly efficient fabric which requires no maintenance to deliver its thermal performance.”
Jennifer Boyer, vice-president of sustainability at TU Dublin, believes more expertise is needed throughout the sector and says “this will come through the graduate pipeline in architecture, engineering, surveying and construction experts who are increasingly digital natives, grounded in whole-life-cycle approaches, and who value environmental and societal concerns”.
In contrast, O’Flynn says, the growth in knowledge and awareness of the impacts of carbon in the Irish construction industry has increased dramatically over the past number of years.
“Irish suppliers are global innovators in reducing embodied carbon impacts of their products. The skills are here to showcase Ireland as a low-carbon economy and the willingness to change old habits to drive that change is growing all the time.”
