According to the World Economic Forum, the green transition of the building-sector value chain could unlock about $1.8 trillion in market opportunities. However, construction’s value chain is currently responsible for 37 per cent of carbon emissions globally.
Reducing Scope 3 emissions – emissions that occur in the supply chain of an organisation – presents a complex challenge, given that such emissions emanate from activities beyond that organisation’s direct control. With industrial sectors such as steel and cement making up part of the supply chain, its decarbonisation is all the more challenging.
Engaging and working collaboratively with suppliers is crucial for organisations to tackle Scope 3 emissions. Aoife O’Donnell, head of sustainability at Jones Engineering, details how it has begun to tackle this pressing issue, with Scope 3 emissions accounting for more than 97 per cent of Jones’ total carbon footprint.
“There is a lot of work to be done but we are taking the steps now so that we move in the right direction,” she says. “We have been collaborating with our suppliers, conducting responsible sourcing workshops and implementing responsible sourcing strategies.”
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The workshops have looked at subjects including climate change, carbon reduction, human rights, the circular economy and the use of sustainable materials. Supporting suppliers is particularly important when the suppliers are smaller organisations or SMEs that may not have the same resources to invest in decarbonisation.
Working with suppliers to improve the availability of data on their products is a top priority for Jones Engineering, says O’Donnell: “We have signed up to the Irish Green Building Council’s Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) commitment, which means we will be asking our suppliers for EPDs for their products.”
The programme allows producers to create an EPD for their product using product category rules and have it verified and published on a national platform. Conforming to a common standard, (the European Standard EN 15804) means EPDs can be integrated into building-level assessment and used to compare construction products in a building context. The impacts of construction products are modelled across all life cycle stages, from manufacture through transport to site, emissions in use and maintenance, energy and water consumed, and impacts of demolition or deconstruction, all the way to waste processing at end of life.
With construction being one of the most carbon-intensive industries, this level of granular detail is necessary to pinpoint where improvements can be made as demand for sustainable construction practices grows.