Consultancy firm Atkins has created the carbon calculator to allow firms to work out how much operational carbon they might use.

The Remediation Options Carbon Calculator (ROCC) has been designed to allow companies to compare estimated carbon footprints of different practices.

Describing the ROCC at the Brownfield Expo (BEX) at Sustainabilitylive!, Gavin Bollan, head of business, air and sustainability at Atkins, said carbon calculators cannot be precise tools, but can still be very useful as a comparison tool.

“The actual answer we get from any carbon calculation is riddled with uncertainty,” he said. “There are so many assumptions and so many uncertainties.

“It’s finding the difference between your two land remediation options – that’s the most robust use of it.”

The tool will calculate the likely carbon footprint of a number of aspects of land remediation projects, including transport use, offsite waste disposal and the embedded energy of some materials.

But Mr Bollan said the ROCC calculates largely operational carbon rather than embedded carbon, as this is easier to quantify.

“I think we have come up with something that’s managed to be useful, it’s managed to be usable and it’s managed to be robust,” he added.

Kate Martin

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