As part of their ongoing quality management process, HS2 joint venture Effiage Kier (EK) contracted Lloyd’s  Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) to undertake a PAS2080 audit on their GHG reporting, processes, systems and tools.  For the past year EK have been using eTool to model, baseline and improve the whole life carbon of their respective HS2 assets. 

PAS 2080 is an environmental protection standard for carbon management in infrastructure and includes requirements for effective governance and leadership, quantification of greenhouse gas emissions, target setting, reporting, information management and continual improvement. 

“The PAS promotes reduced carbon, reduced cost infrastructure delivery, more collaborative ways of working and a culture of challenge in the infrastructure value chain through which innovation can be fostered. It includes requirements for all value chain members to show the right leadership and to establish effective governance systems for reducing whole life carbon through the use of a detailed carbon management process. “

(PAS2080:2016)

The overall structure of GHG reporting within PAS2080 largely follows the modular approach defined in EN15978 – the European standard on how to measure the environmental performance of buildings.

The PAS2080 audit demonstrates EKs ability to quantify, compare and improve the life cycle environmental impacts of their infrastructure projects.

Spanning several months, LRQA undertook a rigorous technical review process that goes beyond PAS2080 and also incorporates ISO14064-3 Specification with guidance for validation and verification of greenhouse gas statements.  Both EKs systems for data gathering and aggregation as well as eTool modelling software have been extensively assessed against LRQA requirements, including the following:

• Gap analysis
• Design team collaboration
• Management systems and policies
• Internal quality assurance
• Database reliability
• Calculation methodologies
• Testing procedures

This can be a daunting process however the transparency of the systems and procedures in place at both EK and Cerclos has provided effective documentation to satisfy the LRQA audit. The following Cerclos policies and procedures were interrogated with particular detail.

• Cerclos quality management policy
• eTools data validation processes
• eTool Regression Testing Methodology and Practices
• eTool Error Handling
• Cybersecurity incident response plan
• Data Breach Response Plan
• eTool Patterns and Practices
• eTool Development and Deployment Procedure
• Software Delivery Methods
• Disaster recovery plan

Another big part of effective LCA reporting is multidisciplinary collaboration. A good LCA will involve input from a wide range of expertise including change estimators, planners, designers and operation managers. Further opportunities have been presented for EK, Cerclos and our stakeholders to learn and continually improve the quality of our LCA modelling and reporting.

“PAS2080 accreditation is at the forefront of innovative verification schemes. Early in 2018, Eiffage Kier subscribed to eTool software to help facilitate carbon quantification and management in a full Life Cycle Assessment. Having eTool not only achieves significant BREEAM credits but has helped Eiffage Kier achieve PAS2080 verification as a designer working on HS2, Britain’s largest infrastructure project.

Using eTool’s user friendly software, we have produced a variety of carbon assessments – ranging from full, contract-wide baselines to smaller carbon quantification – in asset balanced scorecards for different design methods. This has helped save thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide, in turn helping EiffageKier move towards a 50% reduction in embodied carbon.

Cerclos’ proactive approach to responding to LCA queries from the Eiffage Kier team has helped deliver a compliant life cycle assessment report in line with various standards including PAS2080. Cerclos’ in house assurance on published life cycle assessments has also been important to the success of Eiffage Kier’s verification of PAS2080 and life cycle assessments. The output from our partnership has been instrumental in providing our stakeholders with confidence in both our methods and our data.”

Matthew Pygott – Carbon Assessment Engineer

For further information on PAS2080, the audit or if you are working on infrastructure projects and looking to further understand their CO2e impacts please contact info@cerclos.com