The European Federation of Foundations Contractors (EFFC)
has joined forces with the Deep Foundation Institute (DFI) to develop a carbon
calculator for the foundations sector, which, according to Chris Harnan,
chairman of the EFFC Contracts Working Group, will allow companies to provide
clients with verifiable, reliable data about the carbon footprint of their
foundation designs.
Writing in the Summer 2012 issue ofEuropean
Foundationsmagazine, Harnan says that the calculator also will enable
users to compare various design solutions. Work on the calculator started in
March this year, and is being managed by a steering group formed by volunteers
from DFI and EFFC, led by Bachy Soletanche's Marine Lasne.
Technical development of the calculator is being undertaken
by Carbone 4, and aims to create a user-friendly, project-based system for 10
different foundation techniques, including the reuse of existing piles – an
approach that is growing in popularity.
According to EFFC, the aim is to create a system by which
member companies can compare their own designs – based on carbon production –
and benchmark them against those of other companies, as well as provide clients
with verifiable and standardized carbon data for the project.