Embodied Carbon Flip Book

The Embodied carbon contained within the structure and fabric of the building is a crucial element of sustainability. However, this is sometimes difficult to determine at the early stages of design development. The 'Flip Book' is a simple interactive on-line tool that helps you make decisions about structure and fabric and calculates the approximate total embodied carbon.

Ten options for structure and four options for fabric / envelope are provided to allow you to mix and match and compare options.

Stage 1 - Insert the gross usable floor area of your building (all floors) HERE

Stage 2 - (Go to the next page) Choose the most appropriate structure to meet your brief. Note: Sometimes structural requirements for the ground floor are different from the upper floors and this can be reflected in your choices. For example, a hotel may need big spaces at ground floor, but more cellular accommodation for bedrooms above (flip through options at each level). If the building is more than 3 floors, just assume the ground floor structure choice is repeated for all intermediate floors

Stage 3 - (At the bottom of the page) Choose a building envelope which most closely matches your design and proportion of glazed openings.

Results - (At the bottom of the page) are shown in tons of carbon for the building's structure and for the whole building including it's external envelope. The embodied carbon is also shown in Kg per sq m, with a graphic representation of the overall performance based upon the LETI chart for 'Upfront embodied carbon'.

The 4 grey boxes on the LHS of your choices show the embodied carbon at that level of the building structure in tons of carbon for a building measuring 12m x 18m (this is useful for comparisons).

Tips on selecting your structure:

• Concrete and Steel - appropriate where longer spans are needed i.e. for big volume spaces and also multi-story frame structures
• Timber frame, SFS, and CLT - useful for more cellular accommodation and smaller spaces such as housing and hotels
• Glue laminated timber - appropriate for longer spans where it is only supporting the roof (but not for multi-story frame structures)
• Masonry with timber floors - appropriate for shorter spans for housing and smaller spaces
• Masonry arched structure - appropriate for shorter spans, or possibly longer spans if only supporting the roof
• Note: you cannot put heavy materials (concrete/steel/masonry) on top of lighter materials (timber/CLT)
• The sub-structure foundations / pads should be located beneath point loads (columns and walls)

Click hereto see how the flip book was designed and the calculations that make it work.