13 Aug 2026
Whole‑life carbon is rapidly becoming one of the defining measures of project performance. As planning authorities tighten requirements and clients become more carbon‑literate, the question is no longer whether to consider carbon, but when. The answer is simple: as early as possible, and continuously throughout the project lifecycle.
As part of our commitment to delivering genuinely low‑carbon architecture, we sat down with Associate Director, Tom, to discuss how carbon thinking is evolving, and what clients need to understand as whole‑life carbon becomes central to project decision‑making.
Why do early carbon decisions matter so much?
Early in the project, the decision making is more fundamental, such as whether to go for a new build or refurbishment, which will have a relatively large impact on the carbon used. Later on in the project, aspects become much more crystallised, and decision-making relates to increasingly detailed aspects of the project, such as the type of structural system to be employed, then the detailed design of the chosen system, resulting in particular section sizes. The decision on the procurement of each part of the building may come at a late stage, or it may have been set by performance requirements in the specification. This can also have a big impact on the carbon performance of the project.
So I would agree that carbon decisions need to be built into the early project stages to avoid missing out on early wins but that there is still scope for significant carbon reductions to be made later on in the process also!
What do clients most often misunderstand about embodied carbon?
I would say that this is something that is only just starting to be discussed with most clients so it would be tricky to pinpoint the misunderstandings. Up to this point, most of the focus, environmentally, has been on the operational energy use and this has been the target of most of the legislative standards that clients and contractors have had to meet. As the energy grid continues to decarbonise, the relative importance of embodied carbon will continue to grow, which means clients and legislators are likely to respond accordingly. Planning authorities are already starting to add requirements for whole life carbon assessments or similar, for planning submissions. The Greater London Authority has led the way in this. One general misunderstanding may be that going with a timber-framed building will solve everything in terms of embodied carbon. As the calculation deals with all aspects of the building fabric, this is not quite the case, though there are certainly benefits to the use of timber.
How does whole‑life carbon actually change project outcomes?
When a whole life carbon assessment is used for a project, it will cover all aspects of the project construction, handover, use, future refurbishment and eventual demolition. This requires asking a lot of wide-ranging questions such as the processes the contractor will use on site, what the client/end user’s maintenance regime will be, which a typical design team may not usually focus on. As an example, in whole-life carbon terms, there would be a benefit if the building was fully designed for disassembly at end-of-life from the outset. This would require a totally different emphasis during the design stage to achieve.
Together, Tom’s answers underline a clear message: whole‑life carbon thinking strengthens decision‑making from the very first sketch to the final handover. When clients engage with carbon early and stay committed throughout the process, projects become more efficient, more resilient, and better prepared for the future.