The RICS Professional Statement mandates a whole life approach to reducing carbon emissions within the built environment. It is intended to standardise whole life carbon assessments and enhance consistency in outputs, by providing specific practical guidance for the interpretation and implementation of the methodology stipulated by EN 15978. The standard equips assessors with the right skills and knowledge for completing consistent and accurate carbon measurements.
First published in 2017, the WLCA standard is now into its 2nd edition, authored by world-leading decarbonisation experts and supported by a global expert working group, has been revised extensively to reflect advances in professional practice and updates to legislation and regulatory requirements. It also includes a significantly expanded scope to include all built asset types including infrastructure. It is aligned with established environmental performance standards (such as EN 15978, EN 17472, EN 15643, and EN 15804) and is designed so that assessors are guided to conduct emissions estimates practically and systematically.
In the UK, RICS is also part of a cross-industry group collaborating to develop the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard (NZCBS), which will set out metrics by which net-zero carbon performance is evaluated for buildings. The measurement of carbon emissions to meet the standard will be in accordance with the RICS WLCA standard, and the repository where the data is submitted and stored for benchmarking will be the Built Environment Carbon Database (BECD).
If you are looking to conduct an LCA for your project in line with the RICS Professional Statement, or would like to discuss any of the above, please get in touch.