Traditionally, custom-designed nuclear grade facilities enclose a mixture of safety-critical, safety-supporting and other systems.

Embodied carbon in sustainable building design.One of the core issues we’re trying to tackle with sustainable design revolves around carbon.

We know a lot about operational carbon and how buildings operate.Data helps us to close the performance gap and make sure buildings perform as well as, or even better than, they do in the design stage.As we’re able to drive better and better performance through energy efficient equipment and passive design techniques, we can actually start reducing our operational carbon right from the early design stages.

This decrease in operational carbon will continue over time with things like the decarbonisation of the electricity grid.However, the result is that embodied carbon in buildings, due to material usage and the amount of carbon which is integral to the building itself, becomes a larger proportion of the overall carbon emitted from the building across its lifespan.

As such, embodied carbon is increasingly playing a much bigger role in our day-to-day focus on sustainability as architects and designers..

Embodied carbon varies based on the building typology.The data collected on this project is valuable, not because it shows how well the buildings perform against benchmarks, but because the data can influence future projects right now.

If every project was able to reduce embodied carbon by nearly 40% it would revolutionise the industry..The Forge stands as a beacon of what is possible when we rethink design and construction.

Its success is a collaborative triumph, and a reflection of our shared vision for a more efficient, sustainable built environment..Learn more about The Forge.Zig talks with Jaimie Johnston MBE, Head of Global Systems at Bryden Wood, about using data to create better healthcare facilities.