Hawkins\Brown and UCL IEDE launch carbon emission reduction tool

Hawkins\Brown presented their new Emission Reduction Tool (H\B:ERT) at New London Architecture (NLA) in The Building Centre.

H\B:ERT equips the build environment industry, one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions worldwide, with a tool to reduce carbon emissions.

Hawkins\Brown created the tool in partnership with UCL IEDE within The Bartlett, as part of an Engineering Doctorate programme by Yair Schwartz, titled Refurbish or Replace: Optimising Refurbished and New Building Designs for Life Cycle Carbon Footprint and Life Cycle Cost Minimisation.

The tool enables designers to test and visualise the embodied carbon emissions of different materials and building components during the design process, allowing easy comparison between design options. The tool also sets the precedent for a complete life cycle carbon footprint analysis.

Hawkins\Brown designed UCL’s new 6,200m² Here East site as well as the home of The Bartlett at 22 Gordon Street, as part of a six-year partnership with UCL Estates to rework The Bartlett’s educational estate under the Transforming UCL programme.

The interior of UCL’s space at Here East was one of the case studies for the tool. By interrogating the carbon emissions factors of different cladding materials while designing Here East, Hawkins\Brown were able to create a space that had a negative value of total embodied carbon.

Dr Rokia Raslan, Senior Lecturer in Building Performance Simulation at UCL IEDE, said:

Hawkins\Brown have been a long-standing partner in supporting IEDE research and innovation. We are delighted to see H\B:ERT, a product of this collaboration, potentially kick-start a step change in industry practice in considering life cycle carbon footprint analysis alongside the earliest stages of the design process"

Louisa Bowles, Partner at Hawkins\Brown said:

Hawkins\Brown are proud to be sponsors of the EngD programme. The collaboration has offered us expertise in a topic of embodied carbon that will have real impact on the construction industry going forwards. The H\B:ERT tool will also form a lasting legacy of the research within our office as we utilise it on further projects. ”

Read more about the emission reduction toolkit.
Read more about UCL at Here East.