Sustainability & Carbon

Building For Our Future

Regulation and rating systems, consumer expectations and investor demands, advancing technology and resource constraints are transforming what we build, where we build and how we build it. 

The built environment sector is always focused on the future. But with the world’s buildings responsible for nearly 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, the future is sharply in focus.

As one of the world’s oldest and largest quantity surveying firms, RLB knows that cost is just one measure of value. How we measure and manage carbon emissions, alongside other economic, environmental, health and wellbeing imperatives, is a global challenge.

RLB has established a global carbon policy that aligns our business with international targets set out in the Paris Agreement. We have committed to achieve net zero emissions by 2030 as a global business.

We have also established a suite of services to support our clients as we work together to drive down emissions and uncover new value.

Sustainability Consultancy Services

RLB’s sustainability consultancy service covers all cost aspects of the sustainability agenda including ESD assessment tools like Green Star, carbon reduction through to social value. Our services are tailored to sustainable project delivery, with expert knowledge provided at every stage of the project lifecycle.

RLB’s approach is to identify key sustainability improvements and implement bespoke solutions that consider client goals and industry best practice, market drivers and potential legislative changes.

Linking Carbon & Estimating

Measuring, mitigating, and managing climate change is the responsibility of every industry. But much of the heavy lifting will fall with high-emitting sectors, including the building and construction sector. With this comes the challenge of decarbonising supply chains, investigating R&D solutions, and effectively collaborating across the sector to better forecast and reduce climate-related risks.

Embodied carbon emissions – the emissions that are locked in as soon as a building comes out of the ground – are particularly hard to abate. Upfront emissions generated during manufacture, construction, transport, and demolition will constitute an estimated 85% of the industry’s footprint by 2050.

RLB is helping our clients to quantify these hidden emissions with a methodology that assesses upfront embodied carbon impacts and offers concise, accurate and informative end-to-end advice across the building lifecycle.

Our Carbon Estimating Process

RLB’s carbon estimating process operates as a one-stop-shop. This end-to-end process eliminates the need for RLB to obtain solutions or advice from third-party suppliers and delivers high levels of transparency and quality to our clients from asset design to disposal.