Carbon footprint

How do you calculate carbon footprint?

Currently we estimate CO2 emissions originating from (i) on-site equipment operation and (ii) materials’ embodied carbon. 

For on-site equipment operation, we use the Tier 1 approach for the emission of CO2 gas during fuel combustion (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC 2006). First, we collect all activities that have budgeted equipment assigned. Then, our natural language processing (NLP) algorithm detects the type of equipment as well as its primary attribute based on the equipment name. For example, for a name `Excavator 10T` we infer that the equipment type is excavator and the primary attribute is mass and has value 10 tonnes. After the identification, we match your equipment against our database where we determine its fuel/energy rates i.e., how much fuel it consumes per hour. Depending on how much time the equipment is running during an activity, we calculate the amount of consumed fuel and convert it to mass of CO2 emissions (in kilotonnes).

For materials’ embodied carbon, we collect all activities that have budgeted material assigned. Then, we use NLP to identify the category of a material and the unit in which it is measured. Based on material type we match against our database to find the conversion factor from units of material to embodied carbon (in kilotonnes). 

How do you calculate the impact of delay in carbon emissions?

Durations of activities are uncertain and so is the duration that the associated equipment runs for that activity. We take into account the distributions of uncertainty that you have assigned on each activity in order to calculate that variability in task duration, and we then interpet that change in duration in terms of additional CO2 emmisions. 

In terms of materials, we do not expect changes in their quantities due to delay since they are directly related to the design of the project. 

Do I need to use specific resources to make it work?

No, our NLP algorithm will use the name that you have used in your original activity to approximate the resource that you intended, and then match it with our extensive database of resources. 

You can improve that estimate by simplifying resource loading in your schedule by using the short lists below. 

Materials

Materials are defined by their resource name and measured in terms of specific units. 

Here is a short list of typical materials entries (and their units) that you can use 

Equipment 

Equipment is defined by resource name which can include a measure of the primary attribute. 

Here is a short list of typical equipment entries (and their units) that you can use. We also include suggested primary attributed that you can use to further refine the estimate. 

Note that for equipment, units do not have a special entry in P6. Instead, we distinguish them by what we define as their primary attribute. This is a distinct property of an equipment type which can lead us to narrow down its energy consumption. An example is excavators which we identify based on their weight, e.g., a 10 tonne excavator should have a different fuel consumption rate compared to a 20 tonne excavator. Writing what’s the primary attribute is optional, however its inclusion can lead to a better CO2 estimation.