Dynamic Holistic Life Cycle Assessment: Integrating Embodied and Operational Carbon, Energy, Water and wider ecosystem impacts

Sustainability in the built environment has typically been framed in relation to the impacts of new buildings on their immediate surroundings without adequately considering the impacts remote from the project site but caused by the project.

The industry is starting to look more holistically at the whole life carbon impacts of new construction projects and retrofits, but what would that look like if we explored other indicators of ecosystem health in the context of life cycle assessment methodologies? How could holistic life cycle assessment reduce energy use and carbon emissions as well as facilitate a circular economy and regenerative design?

The focus of this research would be on the interplay between whole life carbon (integrating embodied and operational demand and supply impacts) and whole life energy, water, and other whole life ecosystem impacts of buildings and their associated infrastructure.

This project aims to develop a new framework for life cycle assessment for new-build and retrofit building development projects in order to increase the applicability of life cycle assessment in driving action against climate change and ecosystem breakdown.
Aspects to research and include:
- Dynamic: temporal considerations such as grid decarbonisation and the time it takes for natural systems to regenerate
- Holistic: expanding the range of indicators of ecosystem health such as water
- Other inherent restrictions of existing Life Cycle Assessment methods, building on previous PhD students' findings
Pilot testing of the framework will include consultation with industry and be supported by an impact assessment of real-world project(s) to stress test the framework learning, recommendations and next steps.

The low carbon energy systems needed to achieve the Government's carbon 2050 reduction targets promise declining generation costs, but at the price of inflexibility and intermittency. The challenge is to contain costs and improve energy system security, by building in resilience. The opportunities include: more efficient energy conversion, networks and storage technologies; improved energy control and management systems; integration of energy performance into modern methods of construction; improved measurement, display and control systems; and new business models. This will bring pervasive economic benefits: the creation of new intellectual property and expertise; businesses with the ability to compete in the huge new markets for energy efficiency and resilience, both in the UK and overseas; healthier and more productive places to work and live; and a means to address social hardship and inequalities, such as fuel poverty, which affects the health and wellbeing of society's most vulnerable. Seizing these opportunities requires leaders with multi-disciplinary knowledge, skills and whole-system perspective to break down restrictive, sector-specific silos, and drive innovation. The ERBE CDT will train such leaders.

The short and medium term impacts of the ERBE CDT will arise during the training of these leaders and through their research outputs and collaborations. These will include, but are not be restricted to: new approaches to analysis; new insights derived from large datasets; new modelling methods and ways of using existing models; new experimental techniques; field and laboratory measurement techniques; improved socio-technical methods; new manufacturing methods, devices, primary data sets, and patents; and, together with our industrial stakeholders, the integration of research into the business innovation process.

The longer term impacts will be realised over the next 40 years as ERBE graduates take on influential roles in diverse organisations, including:
- national and local governmental organisations that are developing affordable and socially acceptable evidence-based energy policies;
- energy supply and services companies that are charged with delivering a clean reliable and economical system, through deployment of energy efficiency products and technologies within an evolving energy system architecture;
- technology companies that are developing new components for energy generation and storage, new heating, cooling and ventilation systems, and smart digital controls and communications technology;
- industries that are large consumers of fuel and power and need to reduce their energy demand and curb the emission of greenhouse gases and pollutants;
- consultancies that advise on the design of energy systems, non-domestic building design and urban masterplans;
- facilities managers, especially those in large organisations such as retail giants, the NHS, and education, that are charged with reducing energy demand and operating costs to meet legally binding and organisational targets;
- standards organisations responsible for regulating the energy and buildings sectors through the creation of design guides and regulatory tools;
- NGOs and charities responsible for promoting, enabling and effecting energy demand reduction schemes;
- health and social care providers, who need to assure thermal comfort and indoor air quality, especially as our population ages and we adopt more flexible healthcare models.

The realisation of these benefits requires people with specific skills and an understanding of the associated ethical, health & safety, regulatory, legal, and social diversity and inclusion issues. Most importantly, they must have the ability to look at problems from a new perspective, to conceive, and develop new ideas, be able to navigate the RD&D pathway, and have the ability to articulate their intentions and to convince others of their worth; the ERBE CDT will develop these capabilities.