Brunswick Pilot Project

This project is a partnership with Grenville Architectural Constructions, which has been pioneering the residential embodied landscape since 2020.

This pilot project is the real-world application of the CarbonTrace ‘benchmark emissions’ and project optioneering tool, applied to reduce emissions and demonstrate project performance.

Part 1:

The pilot uses the CarbonTrace engine to provide a NatHERS data comparison to state average and estimation of material volumes.

Part 2:

Capturing real-time project data from Grenville Architectural Construction, which is categorising delivery docket data from every site delivery to calculate ‘as-built’ project emissions.

Project Headlines

Cold-shell Emissions: 13,307kg

Total C02/m2: 96.11 kgC02e/m2

Benchmark (VIC): 45.2% Below

Part 1: NatHERS Conversion

This project has been designed with reducing operational and embodied emissions as a key design parameter. It has used the CarbonTrace optioneering engine to inform early design decisions.

As a result, project performance is nearly half that of the VIC benchmark. This has been a result of several key design decision:

  • Maximum re-use of existing building

  • Lightweight footing and material system

  • Low-emissions concrete

  • Maximum material salvage

The CarbonTrace algorithm has generated a BOQ of the project, which will be compared to as-built values as they are collected.

Part 2: Real-time Embodied Carbon Measurement

Grenville Architectural Construction has developed systems to enable the real-time tracking of materials to site. This provides the highest possible emissions data quality and represents a valuable source of information.

The NatHERS conversion will only capture the ‘cold shell’ of the building, whereas the delivery dockets will provide data on every single material item delivered to site, across all trades. This comprehensive mode of analysis will be compiled at job completion as a formalised Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

Conducting a ‘gap analysis’ of the NatHERS conversion scope and a full analysis will inform further development of the CarbonTrace algorithm and provide an accurate reference point for other LCA’s.