Past News

• May 2019 On the 24th May I presented at a workshop on greening construction supply chains at the Swedish EPA in Stockholm. The event was organised by Mistra Carbon Exit and Climate Strategies. My presentation focused upon policy options for low carbon construction and the slides can be downloaded here.

  January 2019 On the 29th January I presented at the ISOBIO project closing event in Brussels as part of a session on embodied carbon policy in European construction. My presentation focused upon recent developments in the UK and the slides can be downloaded here. All other presentations from the day are available from the event website.

  January 2019 I recently co-authored a new article in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. The article considers the role that strategies to improve material productivity could play in meeting the UKs 4th and 5th carbon budgets.

  October 2018 At the end of October I attended the ICE Global Engineering Congress in London. On the 24th I chaired and presented in a session on carbon reduction in the built environment, also featuring speakers from HS2 and Landsec. You can watch a recording of the session or download slides from my presentation. On the 25th I moderated another session focussing on climate action, featuring talks by Keith Clarke and Diana Guzman-Barraza.

  On the 11th October I presented at the Community Housing Cymru One Big Housing Conference in Wales. My presentation focussed on the need for low carbon housing and the slides can be downloaded here.

  September 2018 I recently co-authored a report for DEFRA exploring the link between resource use and carbon emissions. This involved calculating the UK’s material and carbon footprints and developing new carbon-based metrics of resource efficiency. These metrics were used to explore the extent of decoupling of raw material consumption from economic activity and decomposed to enable comparisons across sectors of the economy. A short summary of the work can be found in this CIEMAP Briefing Note. The full report is available from the DEFRA science & research projects site.

  June 2018 On the 14th June I presented at the Woodbuild Wales conference in Cardiff. My presentation focussed on the role of timber construction in meeting carbon targets and the slides can be downloaded here. I also recently co-authored a new article in Climate Policy. The paper explores decision making under uncertainty in climate change mitigation through a case study from the construction sector.

  I also recently authored a new CIEMAP Briefing Note - Reducing carbon in construction: a whole life approach. The note explains why the UK should adopt a whole life approach to reducing carbon in construction and includes recommendations for supporting local and national policies. It is one of a series of 10 Briefing Notes summarising the outputs of the Centre for Industrial Energy, Materials and Products.

  April 2018 On the 19th April I presented at a UKGBC event on aligning carbon targets in the construction industry. My slides can be downloaded here. The event was sponspored by CIE-MAP, Edinburgh Napier University and Landsec, and featured 13 speakers across a range of topics related to carbon reduction. A full write up of the event should be available shortly.

  Earlier this year I had a new journal article published as part of a special issue of Energy and Buildings focussed on embodied carbon and energy. The article provides a brief review of current carbon reduction commitments from the UK construction industry and discusses the challenges associated with developing a common sectoral decarbonisation trajectory. I have also co-authored a chapter in a new book on Embodied Carbon in Buildings, focussed on applying circular economic principles to reduce embodied carbon.

  March 2018 I presented at Ecobuild as part of a panel session discussing a recent UKGBC project to assess the sustainability of the UK built environment. The session was chaired by Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive of UKGBC. Other speakers include Adrian Gault (CCC), Bill Dunster (ZEDfactory), Louise Clarke (Berkeley Group) and Stephanie Wray (President of CIEEM). The slides I presented can be downloaded here.

  June 2017. On 21st June I chaired a session on Innovative Materials and How To Use Them as part of the CIOB Annual Conference. On the 28th June I assisted the UK-GBC in running an Embodied Carbon Masterclass for construction clients. I also had two new publications accepted - on the circular economy and embodied carbon in construction.

  March 2017. In March I presented at Ecobuild as part of a session on Carbon emissions in the built environment: Current status of emissions and activities. My talk included an update on current emissions, future targets and mitigation options. Slides can be downloaded here.

  February 2017. In February I presented at the Healthy Buildings Expo at UCL. My talk focussed on the importance of low carbon, resource efficient building products in maintaining a healthy planet. Slides are available here or from the ASBP event site.

  November 2016. In November I presented at the annual Carbon Crunch event at the ICE and a CIRIA event on innovative paths to low carbon infrastructure. Slides for both talks can be downloaded in the presentations section below.

  In November I also gave a joint presentation with Tim Chapman from Arup at a Construction Climate Challenge seminar in Birmingham. You can now watch a recording of the presentation and download slides here. Recordings of all presentations from the day are available from the CCC website.

  September 2016. In September I presented at a joint ASBP and ISOBIO event in Bath. My talk focussed upon embodied carbon and strategies for reduction in the construction industry. The slides can be downloaded here.

  My other Autumn presentation was at the Zero Carbon Buildings Today and in the Future 2016 conference in Birmingham on the 9th September. My talk was entitled Building on the Paris Agreement: making the case for embodied carbon intensity targets in construction and the slides can be downloaded here. A related paper is available as part of the conference proceedings.

  I also published a new journal article exploring scenarios for embodied carbon in the UK construction industry. It is the first application of the novel UK Buildings and Infrastructure Embodied Carbon model I have been developing. It is available open access from the ICE virtual library ahead of print.

About

I am a Research Fellow in Industrial Climate Policy at the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions based at the University of Leeds.

My work is focussed on climate change mitigation and the adoption of material efficiency strategies in a range of industrial sectors. Before this appointment I was a Research Fellow in Energy, Materials and Climate Policy at the Centre for Industrial Energy, Materials and Products. Prior to which I completed a PhD on embodied carbon mitigation in the UK construction industry.

I have published numerous articles on sustainable construction, the circular economy and microgeneration resource assessment (see publications). I have given invited talks, contributed to guidance documents, served on steering groups and acted as a technical reviewer for groups such as the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC). I have also undertaken work for the Green Construction Board, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and the Scottish Government. In addition to my academic work I undertake a small number of consultancy projects each year. Please get in touch if you'd like more information about my work or would like to collaborate on a future project.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Benjamin Franklin