What does DfMA stand for? A simple definition framework for DfMA and MMC

Flexibility through standardisation.

They’re trying to push things from a legislation perspective.Legislation is important, because it leads to clear guidance which industry professionals can use in their day-to-day work.

LETI have taken it upon themselves to look at embodied carbon in order to put into a single benchmark what the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), RIBA, CIBSE and others are doing.It’s positive that individual institutions are there to provide very detailed guidance for specific consultants and professionals, but we also need to have an overarching look at where the industry is heading as a whole.. LETI and Design for net zero carbon.Last year LETI published some of the first documents offering advice on designing for net-zero carbon: The Climate Emergency Design Guide, and The Embodied Carbon Primer.

A voluntary organisation made up of hundreds of professionals, LETI aims to share and collate knowledge in order to improve the way buildings are designed.Bryden Wood’s Head of Sustainability, Helen Hough, has been leading the embodied carbon workstream for the past year.

There are now six sub-workstreams within it.

Each one is looking at different aspects of embodied carbon: the importance of whole-life carbon, benchmarking, the collection of case studies, etc.A factory in Japan was due for closure and demolition as it no longer met the requirements for withstanding an earthquake after rules were changed following the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

Studies to look at remediating the buildings had suggested the need to cease operations for 18 months, meaning the solution was unviable.Although the client was looking for the most efficient replacement factory, the Design to Value approach – combined with clever thinking and seismic modelling – came up with a solution to support the existing building.

This eradicated the need to replace or shut down the operation, saving the client more than £120 million – not to mention tonnes of embedded and emitted carbon in the construction of a new asset..If building is the only option, then the hard questions need to continue:.