Let’s talk about Embodied Carbon for Cat B office fit outs

Over the past few years, the construction industry has been focused on better understanding and measuring the impact of Embodied Carbon on total building carbon emissions. Several organisations in the UK have established targets for new builds for various building typologies, including residential and commercial office buildings.

One area where we have seen less progress is understanding and measuring the impact of Cat B office fit outs on total carbon emissions. This is a critical area to address because Cat B fit outs may be undertaken multiple times over a building’s life cycle and involve materials that have a short life span.

What’s more, separating the carbon emissions between shell and core, Cat A and Cat B works, is crucial for helping both landlords and tenants understand and reduce their carbon impact.

Overbury has set up a task group with various industry specialists to better understand these carbon emissions and today sees the launch of a new report ‘Counting the upfront carbon in Cat B office fit out Part 1’ addressing what the current upfront carbon performance level for a Cat B office fit out should be.

Thanks to Overbury and Zoe Glander, Environmental & Sustainability Manager, for setting up the task group, leading the production of this important report and driving this issue up the sustainable real estate agenda.

I was delighted to be a contributor to the report. If you would like to discuss reducing Embodied Carbon in relation to Cat B office fit outs or other projects, say hello@verteltd.com.