 Project Appreciation and ObjectivesSuppliers to the Water Industry are increasingly competing on the environmental performance of their products; both for new build and rehabilitation. To ensure products are compared on a “level playing field” suppliers and purchasers need to agree upon, devise, employ and evaluate new product performance measures – eg, in the area of carbon accounting and footprinting. Some suppliers of renovation lining systems are already trading on such features as energy efficiency and are developing measures of the ‘carbon footprint’ for their products. However, estimating an embodied carbon measure – even for simple products – is a complex process, which, depending on scope and coverage, may require estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) from all relevant elements in the manufacture-supply-use-disposal chain. This project is addressing the common interest of water utility companies and their suppliers in developing an Embodied or Life Cycle Carbon measure for pipeline installation and rehabilitation techniques, so that quantification can be made in a consistent, robust and auditable manner. The methodology complies with guidance from Ofwat and Defra. Benefits to Water Utility Companies - Provide quantitative information on the GHG emissions associated with AMP4 and AMP5 pipeline capital expenditure programmes.
- Better understand pipeline capital works contribution to overall company GHG emissions.
- Help develop pipeline capital works programmes which demonstrably comply with corporate GHG emissions targets.
Benefits to Manufacturers, Suppliers and Contractors - Provide a common measure and protocol to quantify the ‘carbon footprint’ of their products.
- Provide an independent demonstration of ‘carbon footprint’ and so potentially gain competitive advantage.
Work Programme - Perform a desk based review of operational and embodied carbon accounting and how best to apply this to pipeline installation and rehabilitation techniques.
- Collate list of emission factors for each technique.
- Develop carbon footprint protocol and emissions spreadsheet tool – which will account for carbon emissions at two levels, to provide i) a comparison between generic techniques and ii) a scheme specific estimate of carbon emissions.
- Collect emissions data.
- Populate carbon footprint spreadsheet and run case studies
Related Work - UKWIR Sustainable treatment solutions, 2007-2008.
- UKWIR Water Industry carbon accounting methodology, 2007-2008.
- UKWIR Workbook for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions, 2004.
- Suite of collaborative research projects on installation and rehabilitation techniques, 1990 to present day
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