Setting up the construction site or compound for net-zero or zero carbon dioxide emissions

Reducing anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is a challenge all of us need to address. There is need to innovate to reduce carbon dioxide emissions effectively. Three innovative ideas are presented in this paper to help the construction industry make progress, at construction site/compound level, towards net-zero or even zero carbon dioxide emissions. These ideas are: make the construction site/compound a prosumer of renewable energy for use on, and export from, the site/compound; adopt carbon dioxide emissions analysis for construction sites/compounds (CEAfCS); and adopt CEAfCS metrics as climate change requirements when using Option X29 of NEC4 Engineering and Construction Contract and/or other forms of contract. These ideas have arisen from an iterative creative thinking process that has considered nature of the construction site/compound; nature of operations on a construction site/compound; renewable energy technologies available and their likely development over the next few years; and units of measuring relevant quantities. These ideas constitute a framework that provides opportunity to manage the journey towards minimising carbon dioxide emissions via calculation of key and pinpointed metrics that can be used in planning and/or execution and/or control processes of any construction project.