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 Mark Vender, Policy Advocacy Manager at AIRAH. WG5e is split into three focus areas, building capacity in the sector through education, benchmarking, and demonstrating demand.
"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
Spotlight on Building Services
Building services are an often underappreciated aspect of the embodied carbon conversation. HVAC, refrigeration, fire safety, escalators, lifts, and lighting account for significant upfront embodied carbon in a building, and an even larger portion of the whole-of-life embodied carbon of an asset because of maintenance. In April of 2024, the MECLA WG5e held a Spotlight on Building Services which focused on the nuances of embodied carbon in the often overlooked subject. The recording of the event is available on the MECLA website.
Building Services Deep Dive
MECLA WG5e has also organised a tour of the Daikin Australia manufacturing facilities in Sydney to better understand the road to decarbonisation from a supplier’s perspective. To fully understand how the construction ecosystem can drive decarbonisation, it is important for the demand side to develop in-depth understanding of the complexities in different value chains. MECLA Deep Dives are the way MECLA helps facilitate these important conversations.
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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