When designing proposed installations, the proposed materials’ full life cycle should be considered - production, transport to site, lifespan and end of life. The ability to reuse materials and systems is incredibly valuable for considering future associated carbon emissions.

Where necessary, new installations should be designed to be modular and demountable to enable future use at the end of its proposed lifespan. Walls that can be taken apart and reconstructed without waste have a huge benefit on the overall embodied carbon of a construction project. The industry standard of using metal studs with gypsum plasterboard is incredibly energy intensive to produce and is unable to be moved once installed, generating significant amounts of waste in the construction process.

At Sustainable Workspaces, plywood modular partition walls were constructed around private offices and meeting rooms, with a system of standardised modules in line with typical plywood sheet sizes to reduce wastage and increase flexibility during the client’s occupation of the site. A large portion of these modules were reused from the client’s previous home on the third floor. 

In the future if the client wishes to move or needs to repurpose the space the walls can be repurposed once more. Read more about alternative partition wall systems here.

Following this, a ‘whole life’ approach to procurement helps to understand carbon impact – assess options based on issues such as longevity, maintenance and replacement intervals. Undertaking an assessment of embodied carbon utilising the RICS Building Carbon Database or other robust methodology will establish the impact of an overall project. The actual impact of a material choice can be seen through Environmental Product Declarations which allow materials to be compared like for like.