Designing the buildings and cities of the future

Carbon Value Engineering: Integrating Carbon and Cost Reduction Strategies in Building Design 

A new collaborative research project between CIES members Prof David Carmichael, Dr Ali Akbar Nezhad; UNSW Faculty of Built Environment’s Dr. Philip Oldfield (Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture & Design, FBE) and Professor Dennis Else – Executive Director, Sustainability, Safety & Health, Brookfield Multiplex will look at how we can reduce embodied carbon emissions within the Australian built environment by adapting an established industry practice - Value Engineering (VE).

Value engineering is where cost reduction and constructability are optimised prior to building construction. The project aims to shift the industry standard Value Engineering to become Carbon Value Engineering, with a new metric that integrates both cost($) and embodied carbon (kgCO2eg).

The objective is to provide the basis for both to be optimised simultaneously early in the design process, integrating cost and carbon reduction across the Australian built environment. Project partner is Multiplex.

The project is funded by CRC for Low Carbon Living