Large construction, engineering and property companies are making projects more sustainable mainly by changing what they design, buy, build and measure. The strongest programmes combine operational-energy efficiency with reductions in embodied carbon from concrete, steel and other materials. They set a baseline and reporting boundary, require better product data such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), compare design options before construction and publish project-level results. A target without those details is a commitment, not proof of progress.
Why construction companies are under climate pressure
Buildings and construction consume 32 per cent of global energy and produce 34 per cent of global carbon-dioxide emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction in the Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction 2024/2025. The same report page attributes 18 per cent of global emissions to cement and steel. Those figures explain why climate strategy in this sector cannot focus only on efficient heating, cooling and lighting after a building opens.
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Construction decisions lock in emissions at two different points:
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- Operational emissions come from energy used while a building is occupied, including electricity, heating, cooling, ventilation and hot water. Design, equipment selection, commissioning and the eventual electricity supply all affect this boundary.
- Embodied carbon is associated with extracting, manufacturing, transporting, installing, maintaining, replacing and disposing of materials and products across the life-cycle stages included in an assessment. Upfront emissions from making and installing materials occur before occupants use the building, so they cannot be corrected later by an efficient boiler.
A contractor may therefore report lower construction emissions while a poorly insulated building still has high operational emissions, or report efficient operations while its concrete and structural steel carry a large upfront footprint. A credible corporate plan states which boundary it is addressing and how the two interact.
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Where major companies can reduce emissions
Set a measurable carbon brief at design stage
The earliest design decisions determine floor area, structural grid, foundations, spans, façade quantity and the amount of concrete and steel. Companies can establish an embodied-carbon budget alongside cost, programme and energy targets. Design teams then compare options such as retaining an existing structure, reducing material quantities, using lower-carbon mixes or specifying recycled-content reinforcement. The useful metric is not simply “green design”; it is a quantified change against a stated baseline, such as kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent per square metre.
Use product-specific information in procurement
An EPD reports environmental impacts for a defined product and life-cycle scope under a recognised programme. EPDs allow a buyer to compare concrete mixes, reinforcement, structural sections, insulation or finishes on a consistent declared unit, provided the functional unit, system boundary and assumptions match. A tender can require an EPD, a maximum global-warming-potential value, recycled content or a supplier-specific improvement plan. It should also say how substitutions will be checked: a cheaper product with a different strength class or transport distance is not automatically a lower-carbon equivalent.
Change construction-site energy and logistics
Construction emissions include temporary power, generators, fuel for plant, deliveries, waste handling and rework. Connecting to grid electricity where available, using renewable electricity contracts where their accounting is clear, reducing idling and coordinating deliveries can lower this part of the footprint. These actions matter, but they should not be presented as a substitute for addressing high-impact materials. A site can run on cleaner electricity and still have substantial embodied emissions in its structure.
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Large companies influence emissions through scopes of work, approved-product lists, bid forms and subcontractor reporting. Effective requirements identify the data needed at bid, design-freeze and completion stages; assign responsibility for quantities and factors; and define what happens when a specified product is unavailable. Early supplier engagement is important for concrete and steel because mix designs, mill routes, availability and lead times can change the feasible options.
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Measure the completed project, not only the target
A useful project statement names the reporting boundary, baseline years, quantity source, carbon factors, life-cycle stages and assurance status. “A 20 per cent reduction” is incomplete without saying 20 per cent of what, measured how and compared with which period. Companies should preserve the take-offs, EPDs, approved substitutions and calculation version so an auditor, owner or future project team can reproduce the result.
How embodied-carbon measurement works in practice
- Define the scope. Decide whether the assessment covers upfront product stages, construction impacts, use-stage replacements, end-of-life or the whole life cycle. State whether the result covers the building, a package, a company portfolio or a single project.
- Set the baseline. Use a reference design, an earlier company period or another documented comparator. Record the baseline year and whether the comparison is absolute tonnes or an intensity such as kilograms of CO2e per square metre.
- Build a quantity model. Extract quantities from the BIM model, specifications and procurement records. Reconcile design quantities with delivered quantities when reporting the final project.
- Match products to factors. Prefer an EPD for the actual product and declared unit. If a generic factor is used, disclose its source, geography, technology and uncertainty rather than presenting it as a measured supplier result.
- Test alternatives before procurement. Compare structural options, mix designs, recycled content, local availability and transport assumptions while the design can still change.
- Lock and verify the result. Record approved products and substitutions, update quantities at milestones, and explain whether the result was internally reviewed, independently assured or simply company-reported.
This sequence prevents a common error: calculating a precise-looking number from incomplete quantities and then treating the number as a verified outcome.
Procurement rules are making carbon data more consequential
Public owners are beginning to turn embodied carbon from a voluntary preference into a bid requirement. Canada provides a geographically specific example. The federal Standard on Embodied Carbon in Construction sets minimum disclosure and reduction requirements for major government construction projects, including ready-mixed concrete and construction steel. Amendments dated March 20, 2025 include requirements taking effect on September 1, 2025. The standard is a federal procurement instrument tied to Canadian commitments; it does not automatically govern private projects, provincial work or projects in other countries. Bidders must check the current standard for its detailed scope, project thresholds, EPD provisions and effective-date rules.
For contractors, the practical implication is that carbon information may be needed before award. A bid team should know which products have usable EPDs, whether the EPD is valid for the required geography and product class, and who will sign off the calculation. An informal practitioner question about how often owners ask for low-carbon materials or EPDs is useful context, but it is not an authoritative measure of industry-wide frequency.
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Company-reported example: Six Pacific Place
Swire Properties reports a project-level result for Six Pacific Place in its 2024 sustainability report, published in 2025. The report states that the project produced 19,601 tonnes of upfront embodied CO2e, equal to 637 kg CO2e per square metre of construction floor area. It says this represented an 18 per cent reduction in carbon intensity against the company’s 2016–2018 baseline.
The report attributes the approach to several linked decisions: low-carbon concrete specifications, recycled-content rebar, targets covering concrete, rebar and structural steel, and use of grid power during construction instead of on-site generators. These details show how a corporate target can reach design, procurement and site operations rather than remain a policy statement.
The figures are company-reported results for one project. They should not be read as a ranking of Swire Properties against competitors, a result for its entire portfolio or independently verified sector performance. The intensity figure also cannot be compared fairly with another project unless the floor-area definition, life-cycle stages, baseline and calculation method match.
Digital tools: useful for decisions, not proof by themselves
Software can organise quantities, factors and scenarios, but a tool does not make an input accurate or an outcome achieved. The data source, scope and review process still determine credibility.
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| Tool or workflow | What the documented functionality supports | What users still need to establish |
|---|---|---|
| EC3 by Building Transparency | A free, open-access tool and digitised EPD database for comparing material and project embodied-carbon impacts. | Whether the selected EPD matches the actual product, declared unit, geography and life-cycle boundary. |
| One Click LCA | Embodied, operational and whole-life assessments using BIM, quantity take-offs and other project data. | Complete quantities, appropriate factors, version control and independent review of assumptions. |
| Autodesk construction workflows connected with EC3 | Linking take-off quantities with EC3 data so design and procurement teams can test material choices. | That the take-off is current, substitutions are captured and the comparison is not mistaken for a verified reduction. |
| tallyLCA | Whole-building life-cycle assessment for design comparisons. | The selected life-cycle stages, product data quality and interpretation of the resulting scenarios. |
Using more than one platform can be sensible when an owner, designer and contractor have different data systems. It does not remove the need to document boundaries and reconcile results.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to judge a big company’s sustainability claim
Readers, clients and investors can use the following checklist before accepting a percentage reduction or net-zero statement:
- Boundary: Does the claim cover operational energy, embodied carbon, construction activities, corporate offices or a combination?
- Baseline: Is the comparison year or reference design stated, and has the company explained any restatement?
- Metric: Is the result absolute tonnes, tonnes per revenue, kilograms per square metre or another intensity? Is the denominator stable?
- Life-cycle stages: Are the reported stages upfront only, or do they include replacements, operation and end of life?
- Evidence: Are quantities, EPDs, procurement records and energy data described? Is assurance independent, limited, reasonable or absent?
- Implementation: Do specifications, tender requirements and supplier contracts reflect the target?
- Coverage: Is the number for one project, a region, a business unit or the whole portfolio?
- Progress: Does the company publish repeated results over time, not only a single successful case?
These questions separate an aspiration from a result without assuming that every company must use the same methodology.
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A practical playbook for project teams
For owners
Put the carbon boundary, baseline, required EPD format, reporting milestones and acceptable substitutions in the employer’s requirements. Ask for an option study before design freeze and require a final account based on delivered products. Align carbon scoring with cost and programme so a low-carbon option is not eliminated by an unexamined tender rule.
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For designers and engineers
Reduce quantities before searching for replacement products. Keep a live model of structure, envelope and major finishes, and show the carbon effect of retaining, reusing or changing each element. Coordinate structural performance, fire, durability and availability requirements with carbon goals; a product that cannot meet those requirements is not a valid alternative.
For contractors
Nominate a carbon-data owner, train estimators and buyers to read EPDs, and include data fields in purchase orders. Track generator fuel, grid electricity, deliveries, waste and rework separately from material impacts. Escalate substitutions through a documented approval process rather than losing the audit trail between tender and completion.
For facility and asset managers
Connect the construction record to the operating plan. Commission systems, monitor energy and preserve product information for future maintenance and replacement assessments. Operational savings do not erase upfront emissions, but they can reduce the building’s life-cycle impact when measured over the actual service period.
Common failure modes and their fixes
- Only reporting operational energy: Add an upfront embodied-carbon assessment for major materials, especially concrete and steel.
- Using a generic factor as a product claim: Label it as generic and replace it with a product-specific EPD when available.
- Comparing unmatched projects: Align scope, floor-area definition, baseline, life-cycle stages and units before drawing a comparison.
- Counting a target as an achievement: Publish measured results, methodology and assurance status separately from the target.
- Ignoring construction energy: Meter grid electricity and fuels, reduce generator use where practical and report the boundary clearly.
- Making software the solution: Treat platforms as calculation and decision-support systems; the reduction comes from an approved design or purchasing change.
- Generalising one successful project: State the project name and boundary, then show whether the approach has been applied repeatedly.
What the professional evidence can and cannot show
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ 2024 sustainability report covers 4,000 built-environment professionals in 32 countries. That scope indicates broad professional interest, but it is not a census of construction workers and does not establish how often every market requires EPDs or low-carbon materials.
Likewise, a government standard, a software platform and a company case study each answer a different question. The Canadian standard shows how one federal owner is setting procurement rules. EC3, One Click LCA, tallyLCA and connected take-off workflows show how teams can compare choices. The Six Pacific Place disclosure shows what one property company reports for one project. None, alone, proves that the entire construction sector has reached a common level of performance.
The most reliable direction for the industry is therefore practical and specific: define the boundary, measure material and operational impacts, use comparable product data, put requirements into procurement, and publish results with a baseline and unit. That is how a sustainability promise becomes a project decision that can be checked.
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