Danielle Abbey, one of our PhD Students and member of our Urban Flows Observatory, was amongst a group of experts commissioned to assess options for the vacant John Lewis store in Sheffield city centre.
Danielle calculated that more than 4,300 tonnes of carbon – equivalent to more than 4,000 flights from London to New York – were released during the production of the superstructure’s materials.
The UK construction industry is still using carbon intensive materials such as concrete and steel, meaning that if the building were to be demolished and replaced, a similar amount of carbon would likely be emitted in the rebuild.
However instead than demolishing and rebuilding, the building’s large floor-to-ceiling height makes it adaptable and a great candidate for refurbishment. This would reduce the amount of carbon emitted through both the extraction and production of new materials and so even if only the structure is retained, significant amounts of carbon can be saved.
The question remains, should we be using existing stock to create the buildings of the future, to stop wasting the Earth’s finite resources and use retrofit to its fullest potential?