News

Carbon Calculator shortlisted for prestigious award

13 March 2014

The EFFC and DFI are delighted to announce that the Carbon Calculator has been shortlisted in the Sustainability category of the Ground Engineering Awards 2014.

Ground Engineering is the magazine of the British Geotechnical Association and is recognised globally as an authoritative source of insight for the foundations industry. The awards are held annually and, in the Sustainability category, recognise innovative approaches to addressing environmental issues in construction.

The project is unique among the nominations in being an industry-wide initiative that helps clients and contractors to choose more sustainable options and develop greener techniques. The Carbon Calculator provides standardised carbon footprints on foundation projects that can be compared to see which have the lowest impact on the environment.

Chris Primett, EFFC President said: “Sustainability is a hot topic throughout the world with part of the attention being focused by Governments on reducing Carbon. It will eventually become a measurable item in every construction project. In the future this will affect the way we as specialist geotechnical contractors contract and undertake our work.”

Since its launch the calculator has gained over 350 users from across the globe. These range from foundation contractors, to academics, students and geotechnical consultants.

Upcoming training

The uptake of the Calculator is being led in Europe and the US by country champions. They are conducting training for their colleagues in the foundations industry in their respective countries. In April 2014, NVAF, the federation for foundation contractors in the Netherlands, and the Spanish Federation, AETESS, are holding training events in their respective countries.

If you are interested in receiving training in the use of the Carbon Calculator, please contact effc@effc.org.

Version 2.0 of the Carbon Calculator goes live with 12 new techniques

8 November 2013

A new version of the Carbon Calculator tool has gone live following its successful launch in April 2013.

The calculator is a standardized tool for determining the carbon emissions of foundations. Its role is to help organisations compare competing project proposals submitted by contractors. It also allows different techniques to be compared to see which has the smallest carbon footprint.

In the latest version twelve new techniques have been added ensuring the tool now covers all of the main foundation engineering and ground improvement techniques being used by contractors. These include:

• Bored pile walls
• Soldier pile walls
• Anchors
• Soil Nails
• Dynamic compaction
• Vibro compaction
• Jet Grouting
• Stone Columns
• Vertical Drains
• Dewatering
• Underpinning
• Horizontal Drilling

An emissions factors database for the US has also been added. This allows contractors working in the US to calculate their projects’ carbon footprints using a standardized approach. It’s also now possible to change the units between metric and US measurement systems.

Since its launch a mix of contractors and academic organisations have registered and downloaded the tool from right across Europe, the US, Asia and Australia. New users continue to register and download the tool daily.

A number of national champions for the Carbon Calculator are founding a network to build the uptake of the tool. They are helping contractors to learn how to use it and developing its role as the internationally recognised means for determining the carbon footprints of foundation projects.

For more information please contact the EFFC at effc@effc.org or call +44 20 8663 0948

 

Carbon Calculator for Foundations and Geotechnical Engineering now available

8 April 2013

The carbon footprints of foundations can now be calculated and compared thanks to a pioneering new tool created by the EFFC and DFI.

The challenge of climate change has made minimising the amount of carbon produced by industry a critical issue. To date carbon counting methods and tools have either not looked at foundations specifically, or have been developed for internal use by contractors.

Today we have made publicly available a standardized carbon calculator for all ground works contractors to use free of charge. This means for the first time the carbon footprints of competitive tenders can be compared by an organization commissioning a foundation project.

Our tool also allows contractors to contrast different ground engineering techniques for a project to assess which has a smaller carbon footprint.

It is intended the tool will become the industry standard for ground works and is adopted internationally. Our Carbon Calculator combines the best methods of existing tools and European Carbon Standards and uses data drawn from a range of Emission Factor Databases. The Calculator will be updated periodically with new data to ensure it is continually optimized.

The calculator's development was led by a steering group formed from DFI and EFFC members. The group was chaired by Soletanche Freyssinet's sustainable development project manager Marine Lasne, with technical development undertaken by carbon consulting firm Carbone 4.

"The way the industry has collaborated through the EFFC and DFI to provide data and fund the project is a real achievement," says Lasne. "The calculator will have a huge impact on the ability to demonstrate and compare the sustainability of different foundation techniques", she says, " but success will come from widespread use of the system and we must ensure that it becomes known and accepted by clients - so use and promotion of the calculator by everyone in the industry is vital."

To download the Calculator click on the link below.