Embodied Carbon and the Circular Economy: Analysing UK Planning Systems and Policy

Miriam Graham, Charles Gillott, Stephen Hincks, Danielle Densley Tingley
2024
Bar chart displaying the number of occurrences for various sustainability-related terms. Key includes Local Plan, Waste Plan, and others. Terms like Recycle, Reuse, and Carbon Assessment are prominent. Color-coded bars represent different plans.

Embodied carbon accounts for over 10% of UK emissions (UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), 2023) (Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, 2024). Planning policy provides a yet untapped means to reduce built environment embodied carbon through mechanisms such as adopting circular economy principles.

This paper analyses relevant core planning documents published by UK Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in relation to embodied carbon and the circular economy. In addition to providing insight on current theme consideration within planning policy, this paper highlights leading built environment policies with potential for widespread adoption.

A purpose-built suite of tools was created in python to analyse 4,353 published documents covering all UK LPAs, including local plans, relevant supplementary planning documents, local plan sustainability appraisals, waste plans, climate action plans and circular economy action plans. This considers the overarching themes of whole life and embodied carbon, circular economy, retrofit and demolition, the waste hierarchy, material specification, audits and sustainability requirements.

Results found a high proportion of LPAs refer to the themes of embodied carbon and the circular economy, though few mention or mandate practical and measurable outputs. Notably ‘Embodied Carbon’ is mentioned by 238 (61%) of LPAs in their Local Plans or Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs), while only 77 (20%) mention measurable Whole Life Carbon Assessments (WLCA). Excluding projects referable to the Greater London Authority (GLA), only 26 (7%) of LPAs mandate the undertaking of WLCA in any form. Adopting this measurable policy nationally is key for influencing early-stage design and achieving national carbon targets.

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