Decarbonisation Must Stack Up to Gain Traction, Builder Warns

Decarbonisation requires more than just strategies created at the development level, according to builder Kapitol Group’s co-founder and director David Caputo. 

Speaking at The Urban Developer’s Urbanity 2023 conference on the Gold Coast, Caputo said that when it came to decarbonising methods, there was a valuation issue. 

“It has to be authentic,” Caputo said.

“We always get asked to value manage but what’s the value management?”

“It’s often a substitution of the material for something else with zero interest in embodied carbon.”

“It’s all about dollars—we have never, ever been asked to add or value manage a solution around trying to change the embodied carbon in the building.”

Frasers Property group sustainability vice-president Rory Martin agreed, adding that implementing decarbonisation strategies needed collaboration between the developer and the builder.

“It’s about the mindset,” Martin said. 

“We had a builder we engaged who was willing to send their tradies to undertake a passive haus training course.”

“They then became the people who policed the construction of the project and spoke to the media about the technical aspects of putting it together.”

“As a result, they had other clients wanting them to work on projects, knowing that they had that knowledge, training and commitment to decarbonisation.”

Decarbonisation is a term covering many strategies aiming to reduce carbon emissions to a net zero target at each stage of the development process.

“You can never reach absolute zero,” Martin said. 

“At the moment at least, there are certain construction and operation aspects and processes that we just don’t have good alternatives for yet.” 

Carbon reductions can happen during the operational phase of a building with its power use, during the construction phase with builders using specific construction methods and reducing transportation emissions and also during the planning and design phase. 

Slattery Group chief executive Sarah Slattery said that in the planning and design phase was where most of the changes to decarbonise were often made. 

She cited GPT Group’s recently completed Queen and Collins building in Melbourne where the facade of the building was retained and the entire building retrofitted and adapted. 

That choice during the design phase has allowed tenants to occupy a building where they make significant savings on offset costs. 

“The saving on embodied carbon was equivalent to 215,000 flights between Melbourne and Sydney for an individual,” Slattery said.

“It makes it more attractive for people to want to be in those buildings.” 

Slattery also said that more companies were considering these strategies as an actual value, embedding it in feasibilities and plans. 

“People are planning for these things now,” Slattery said. 

“It’s becoming more common to see developers wanting to aim for net zero with their projects.”

Martin agreed but also said it was a mistake to assume that there was one method or strategy that would help decarbonise property.

“It has to be a mix of strategies,” he said.

“There is no one product—there is no silver bullet.”