MECLA Working
Group 5e - Building Services
Working Group 5e – Building Services (WG5e) consists of experts from building services collaborating on building capacity to decarbonise and reduce embodied carbon. The Chair of WG5e is Jeff Robinson, Global Sustainable Design Expertise Leader at Aurecon. The Co-Chair is Mark Vender, Publishing and Strategic Communications at AIRAH. WG5e is split into three subgroups, building capacity in the sector through education, benchmarking, and demonstrating demand. You can learn more about the various subgroups below.
"Building services include systems such as HVAC and refrigeration, fire safety, escalators and lifts, and lighting. They play a very special role in reducing emissions, because unlike some other parts of a building, they impact both operational and embodied carbon.
In recent decades we have made great progress on reducing operational emissions in building services by improving design, making equipment more energy efficient, using more environmentally friendly refrigerants, and implementing smart monitoring and maintenance. But the task of reducing embodied emissions is just beginning. And it will be challenging – services are made up of many different components and materials with complex supply chains."
Mark Vender
Publishing and Strategic Communications at AIRAH
Jeffrey Robinson
Global Sustainable Design Expertise Leader at Aurecon
Awareness, Education and Engagement
The Awareness, Education and Engagement WG5e subgroup is focused on building capacity in building services by engaging key stakeholders, mapping their knowledge and informational needs, and producing assets for industry.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking embodied carbon is complex, and the mixed material technical makeup of building services units make it difficult to quantify carbon. This WG5e subgroup analyses the opportunities and challenges in using different methodologies for benchmarking embodied carbon.
Demonstrating Demand
The third WG5e subgroup focuses on better understand the demand side needs of the sector and working to demonstrate that demand industry-wide.
Resources in Building Services
To build understanding of embodied carbon in building services, the members of the MECLA WG5e have made the following videos available:
AIRAH Future of HVAC 2022 Conference
Emissions hiding in plain sight: Embodied carbon in building services – Ceire Kenny, Lendlease
AIRAH Future of HVAC 2022 Conference
Embodied energy of mechanical services systems – Nick Adams and Tim Bowker, Arup
CIBSE ANZ Seminar Series 2022
Session 1 – End of Life – Taryn Cornell, GBCA; Carlos Flores, NABERS; Matthew Sykes, Integral Group Australia; Grace Foo, DeltaQ
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