The built environment sector is a major contributor to the global emissions footprint and emitted approximately 9.95 billion tonnes of CO2e in 2019. This is driven by the energy intensity of its underlying industries. Globally, the built environment sector is responsible for approximately 38% of all energy-related emissions. Decarbonising our built environment sector is therefore essential to limiting global warming to within 1.5 degrees. 

Although renewable energy transitions are a promising decarbonisation pathway for grid networks, it may not be enough. There is an urgent need for solutions that can support decarbonisation of construction materials used in the built environment. Modular construction offers a potential alternative. In this type of construction, buildings are produced in ‘modules’ off-site and put together on-site without compromising design or specifications. These types of buildings can be disassembled at end-of-life. Following this, the parts or modules of the building can be reused or refurbished  for further use, thereby reducing the demand for new virgin materials and energy use. 

With this in mind, TopHat is a company providing modular construction services in the UK. Through innovative design and construction processes, the company embeds sustainability in all the stages of home construction. For a building to be sustainable, construction designers and architects, as well as construction companies must collaborate to implement more sustainable construction practices.

A building’s embodied carbon footprint can be reduced by nearly 80% by substituting the use of emission intensive materials—steel, bricks and concrete—with sustainable timber. 

TopHat sends zero waste to landfill during the construction of a home, thereby preserving the availability of valuable resources in the economy. The need for downstream management is also greatly reduced, which helps TopHat to minimise its overall waste footprint and downstream value chain emissions. According to the company, a typical TopHat building can help save around 61,828 kilograms of CO2— that is 45% the amount of CO2 produced by a traditional home. This impact is equivalent to living car free for 30 years. Embodied carbon in a TopHat home is around 729 kilograms, which is 1/27th that of a traditional home (19,692 kilograms CO2).

As the built environment sector strives towards more sustainable building solutions, modular construction offers a promising solution to reduce the sector’s carbon emissions. Corporate leaders and governments also have an important role in considering the waste and value-chain emissions of their operations. By adopting more sustainable procurement choices, specifically for buildings, they can address these challenges. This will create greater incentives for the building construction industry to shift towards more sustainable design approaches and unlock new innovations in modular construction. 

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash.