Accelerating low carbon curtain walling: impactful solutions for now

Buildings designed today will shape our carbon future. As the industry moves from operational to whole-life carbon, curtain walling façades present a major opportunity to reduce emissions – if we rethink how they’re designed and delivered. This publication is the result of a year-long collaboration between Arup, Scheldebouw, and Alinea, aimed at accelerating low-carbon solutions in curtain walling.

By 2030, the built environment is expected to halve its carbon emissions. Achieving this target will depend on open collaboration and a willingness to challenge the status quo. Every stakeholder – from designers and engineers to developers, manufacturers, clients, and investors – has a role to play.

The imperative is clear: we must design better buildings now.

By applying these actions, you could achieve a 20% upfront cost saving and 55% A1-A5 embodied carbon saving on your project today.

Accelerating low carbon curtain walling:

• Sets out six practical, design-led and cost-effective actions that can be implemented immediately, developed through collaboration between Arup, Scheldebouw, and Alinea;
• Highlights the importance of dialogue with clients, developers, architects, contractors and investors, which has surfaced valuable insights around feasibility, compromise, and shared responsibility;
• Provides actionable guidance to inform better decision making and accelerate sustainable outcomes.

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