RIBA-backed platform developed by Grimshaw-led team provides comprehensive guidance and management tools to help cut carbon throughout the building process
A free online tool providing international project teams with all the key guidance and resources needed to cut carbon across the building life cycle has been launched by a team of experts led by Grimshaw.
Minoro was developed and peer-reviewed over two years by a team of 20 experts including the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, RIBA, Architecture 2030, the World Green Building Council and several national Green Building Councils.
Providing centralised access to over 1000 global policies, guidance and methodologies, information can be filtered by region to provide guidance specific to either the UK, Europe, US and Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and relevant to specific regional frameworks, including the UK’s RIBA Plan of Works.
According to Paul Toyne, head of sustainability at Grimshaw, making the resource free and applicable across the entire construction supply chain was critical to effectively tackle such an important issue for the industry.
'We're running out of time and this platform has got so much experience behind it, going much broader than just architecture and design,' said Toyne. 'What we can't afford is for everybody to pick up the topic now and go through their own learning process, we just haven't got time.'
Minoro was born from decarbonisation methodologies developed by Grimshaw on own its international projects. Subsequent development included consultation with architects sitting on the RIBA Sustainable Futures Group and Zoom workshops in North America, the UK and Australia including representatives of the entire construction value chain.
'What started out as trying to understand the landscape, from an architectural design point of view, grew to the point where we were able to cover stage zero all the way through to end of life for all key disciplines,' said Toyne.
The platform can filter information through specific actions or targets, such as embodied carbon, or procurement, or individual roles such as architect/designer, project manager, cost manager, carbon manager or client/owner.
The system does not include carbon or life cycle assessment calculators, but a free downloadable carbon management toolkit provides the client and the design team with a 'living document' designed to ensure that targeted carbon reductions and related actions are followed through on and met throughout procurement, delivery and into operation.
Plans to keep the resource up to date include the use of software to periodically verify that links still function and a feedback form on the website that enables users to share any relevant new guidance or information.
'The great thing about having a partnership with Green Building Councils, particularly from a policy perspective, is they know what's going on and what's been published across their markets, all the information in Minoro has gone through a peer review process,' said Toyne.
According to Toyne, a focus on whole life carbon drew criticism from some architects who wanted Minoro to cover other environmental issues such as biodiverity, health abd wellbeing etc. However, the time critical nature of the climate emergency made it imperative to get something launched, he said: 'If we don't tackle the climate emergency now, we won't have any biodiversity, we won't have a quality of life, we'll have social breakdown, we'll have civil wars, and it's all going to be pretty poor, so I have no regrets.”'
It may be possible in future to adapt the platform, he added, to 'build out action plans or pathways for other typologies and topics', such as climate adaptation and resilience, biodiversity, health and wellness. “'What we've done with this very simple formula is demonstrate, for carbon only, how everything connects across a project life cycle,' Toyne concluded.