(EnergyAsia, December 11, Thursday) --- UK’s dcarbon8 has been awarded the project to measure and manage the carbon footprint for the new Masdar City development in Abu Dhabi, the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city.

This visionary project, driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), a wholly owned company of the government of Abu Dhabi through the Mubadala Development Company, is Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted, $15 billion dollar investment to promote renewable energy solutions and sustainable design.

The first step in the city’s seven-phase plan is the development of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), the world’s first graduate university dedicated to renewable energy, developed in collaboration with MIT and scheduled to open in 2009. The city, set to be completed in 2016, will eventually grow to 1,500 businesses and 50,000 residents and will be home to international business and top minds in the field of sustainable and alternative energy.

WWF and BioRegional have endorsed Masdar city as a One Planet Living Community for its approach to energy production and its sustainable, zero-carbon, zero waste ecology.

The six-sq km district, designed by renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners, will be powered entirely by solar, wind and geothermal energy. All waste will be recycled and water use kept to a minimum, and building materials will be recycled and renewable wherever possible.

dcarbon8, an international carbon and sustainability consultancy, specialises in the built environment, and assists other organisations in reducing carbon in the supply chain.

Working with global clients such as Bovis Lend Lease, Development Securities, ProLogis and Sainsbury’s, dcarbon8 has studied the “embodied” carbon impacts of manufacturing, constructing and disposing of building products from cradle to grave, and has quantified the embodied carbon impacts for single buildings through to complete cities.

Work on Masdar City
For the Masdar City project, dcarbon8 was specifically engaged in the project for its expertise to provide a strategy for measuring the embodied carbon of the development. Because the global carbon footprint from buildings makes up 40% of total global emissions, this sector is increasingly becoming an important target for emissions reduction.

As operational carbon in buildings continues to be lowered, with the multitude of low-carbon operational solutions already available on the market, embodied carbon locked up in the structure of buildings becomes more of a focus for concern. Influenced by the choice of materials, this carbon can only be reduced at the time of construction after which it persists in the atmosphere for decades.

To provide the most accurate measurement of the carbon footprint of the city and consult on reduction possibilities, dcarbon8 is taking into account both the operational carbon of the Masdar organisation, third party consultants and contractors associated with its design and construction, as well as the embodied carbon of the development.

Measuring the operational carbon involves defining the third party business carbon footprint boundaries for the specific activities of all organisations (e.g. architects, master planners, consultants, contractors, etc) directly contracted by the Masdar organisation as a part of the Masdar City development.

Creating an embodied carbon footprint of the development requires measuring all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with manufacture, transportation and disposal of all building materials required for the city as well the onsite energy used to construct the buildings. To capture all GHG emissions, dcarbon8 uses life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology in accordance with its own guidance document, the Planet Positive Protocol.

Andy Marris of dcarbon8 said: “We begin the process of measuring the embodied footprint of the city in the same way that we carry out the carbon footprint measurement of a building – we establish a boundary, and determine what is included in the measurement and what is excluded. We then begin collecting data of quantities and types of materials brought to the development site from the quantity surveyor as well as direct data of material delivery distances and energy use onsite.

“We will then apply ‘emissions factors’, which account for all greenhouse gas emissions emitted in the lifetime of each material or activity. These emissions factors will be taken from both product-specific bespoke LCAs that dcarbon8 have carried or will carry out and from a large database of generic carbon emissions factors values customised to be relevant to the UAE.

“For building products emissions factors are created by piecing together the lifecycle of each material to account for GHG emissions associated with the extraction of raw materials used for both the functional unit and packaging, all transportation (of raw materials, the final product to site, final product to landfill), energy consumed and waste created during manufacture, and the final disposal (end of life).

“Once the footprint is calculated, carbon can be allocated to different building materials, components, individual buildings, building types or the entire city. dcarbon8 can then consult on reducing carbon emissions along materials supply chains and for onsite construction activities.”

dcarbon8 is also helping the Masdar organisation develop an online carbon monitor. This ‘carbon dashboard’ provides a “one stop shop” for architects, engineers and sustainability consultants to access carbon data, either for very quick decisions or for full reports on the component of material they are researching.

dcarbon8 is responsible for producing the data interface for the dashboard, which includes a colour coded system for specifying sustainable materials for the city.

Mr Marris said: “dcarbon8 is very excited about the opportunity to work on such an exciting and ground-breaking development. Masdar, the world’s first city to be designed to be sustainable from the ground up, will become a benchmark for other cities to follow and a legacy for future generations.”

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