Why do we need a Carbon Calculator?

Climate change is a global threat with rising global temperatures predicted to have widespread impacts on health, economies and the environment. International efforts on combating climate change are directed at reducing the amount of industrial carbon emissions. This in turn has seen increasing legislative, client and industry requirements to reduce the carbon footprint of business.

The EFFC and DFI identified the need for a standardized tool to calculate the carbon footprint of deep foundation and ground improvement works. Previously no scheme existed that focused only on ground works and could be used by any contractor or client for benchmarking purposes.

We have three aims:

• Create a means for clients to benchmark contractors proposals against one another
• Enable contractors to assess how different ground engineering techniques impact on a project's carbon footprint
• Develop a comprehensive database of carbon emission values relevant to foundations and geotechnical work

Our development of the Foundation CO₂ Calculator has taken into account existing European carbon footprint tools, Carbon Footprint Standards and Emission Factor Databases. From these we have created an authoritative tool that can be applied internationally to assess and benchmark the carbon footprint of any ground engineering project.