Targeting

In order to succeed with a substantial project, you need a plan, with clear and realistic goals, before you even think about leaping into action.

Our specialist targeting service is here to help you plot a path to achieve net zero carbon emissions. We can help your business as a whole or apply our expertise to a particular building or development.

Either way, we bring our extensive understanding of current regulations, guidance and best practice, plus relevant sector experience, to the table.

We’ll also deploy our widespread knowledge of what’s been achieved by other organisations and developments. This means we can seem ambitious – though we’re always realistic too – in the targets we advise clients to set for sub-contractors. That’s our duty…the closer a building gets to net zero, the more interested investors and occupants are likely to be, and the greater will be the structure’s value. Competitors who lack our knowledge of what’s been delivered elsewhere in the industry can only set targets based on industry standards and benchmark figures, which tend to be less demanding.

Targeting is usually inexpensive and straightforward.

It doesn’t need to be anything else to succeed, and we’ve never believed in inflicting unnecessary cost or complexity on our clients. Like verification, which we explain elsewhere on this site, it also doesn’t involve clients committing vast amounts of time or other resources and needn’t slow the progress of developments significantly.

Here’s how we roll.

Business wide targeting

This process involves us working with you to determine as the following factors:

  • Your current carbon footprint
  • Your desired future footprint
  • How you’ll make this journey from A from B
  • When you’ll arrive at that destination

We do this bearing in mind any existing environmental, social and governance or corporate social responsibility policies you may have. Where these exist but lack content on minimising (or eliminating) net carbon emissions, we can help plug that gap.

Project-specific targeting

We also work with construction professionals to develop carbon reduction targets for particular projects.

This process generates answers to key questions such as:

  • Which standards, such as those of the UK Green Building Council, are we going to meet?
  • What are our embodied carbon emission targets before we offset?
  • How will we go about achieving these objectives?
  • Which professionals are we going to employ, to ensure we reach these goals?
  • How are we going to measure whether we’ve achieved our aims?
  • What clauses will we include in the developer’s specification to ensure these aims are met? We can supply these, where necessary.

Another important question addressed in this process is “what’s our offsetting strategy for emissions we can’t eliminate?” Answering this involves establishing factors such as:

  • The types of carbon credit that align with your business and policies
  • What these credits cost now
  • Which way those prices are likely to move in the foreseeable future

That last consideration matters because, as construction is fundamentally a long-term business, credits seldom have to be bought immediately. We’re expert advisors on timing these purchases to clients’ financial benefit.

The advantages of effective targeting show how it’s essential to get us involved in a project early. That way, we can advise on important matters such as correct specifications, efficient design and the use of the latest technology, to ensure emissions are minimised. It’s not uncommon for our early participation to produce full net zero building performance and sharply reduced costs for clients such as developers. But leave it later and our scope to deliver benefits is much more limited.