Decarbonising construction is a complex and challenging task. Industry group ZERO is working on a plain language playbook that will help everyone make the journey
ZERO is a new, fast-growing industry group focused on embodied emissions from construction. We’re a diverse network of specialists from a wide range of backgrounds and locations. Our expertise includes design, project delivery, commercial, legal, sustainability, digital, construction and procurement. We’re sharing knowledge, raising awareness and are working together to drive change in our industry.
No matter what role you have in our industry, you can help reduce our industry’s carbon emissions.
Why are embodied emissions important?
Humanity is building the equivalent of one Paris-sized city every week. This immense construction activity accounts for 12% of all human carbon emissions.
We recognise that construction is already on the path to decarbonisation, but we need to go further and faster. Roadmaps are being written, carbon data is increasing in volume and quality, and carbon targets are increasingly common. But what are the details? How do we do it? What actions can we all take?
The ZERO Playbook
The path to complete decarbonisation of our industry is complex. So, we’re working on a playbook of actions that breakdown the path into smaller steps that we can all take
The playbook will be a plain language guide that anyone in construction can pick up and use. The actions it will contain are practical, they’re possible with today’s materials and methods, and all actions lead to lower embodied carbon on our projects. We’re writing it to drive change at every level of our industry, in leadership, on projects and through supply chains.
ZERO playbook structure
The playbook is split into seven pillars: Leadership, Design, Measurement, Innovation, People, Digital and Construction. Each pillar includes 10 specific action modules. Each of these are being written by small groups of specialists. We have 100 authors working on 70 modules, supported by a peer network of another 100 group members.
Features of the ZERO playbook:
- It will be expandable, searchable and updatable through a wiki-style comment and editing process.
- It’ll be a platform for knowledge sharing and encourage social learning within our membership on a wide range of topics.
- The action modules short and precise, at just 300 words, and include links to further reading, invites to join working groups, the ability to comment and contribute, and all underpinned by case studies.
- The playbook content isn’t fixed and we plan that its release in 2023 as just the start to our ongoing work, not the end.
- We’ll use it as a content pipeline for our social media campaigns to raise awareness and share knowledge.
ZERO playbook topics
Although ZERO’s focus is embodied carbon, our topic list doesn’t just include materials, methods and carbon measurement. Many of our authors and members are from innovation and start-up backgrounds so there’s a lot of exciting new thinking in the mix. We’re also lucky to have members with backgrounds in organisational transformation, mindset shift and behavioural change. This means we’re developing valuable and important modules on leadership, communication and motivation.
Our full range of topics is as diverse as our industry itself. In our bi-weekly workshops, we cover topics such as smart contracts, robotics, AI, integrated project teams, carbon literacy, skills, procurement routes, frontier- and bio-materials, circular methods, innovation funding, smart plant, lean construction, digital twins and carbon tax. We’re working hard to understand how these topics relate to each other, what’s needed to maximise their uptake, and how they can be used to lower emissions.
How to join ZERO
We welcome new members from any location or experience. Membership is free and it’s easy to join. By registering you’ll have access to our work-in-progress playbook, invites to our working groups and the opportunity to learn, connect, and help reduce our industry’s emissions.
James Bowles
Founder and group lead
ZERO Construct
Tel: +44 (0)7989 232421
www.zeroconstruct.com/membership
