Quebec Wood Export Bureau (QWEB) Partners with Brainpool AI to Build ‘Carbon Fixers’, an Interactive Platform that Brings Data to Earliest Construction Design Phases.

Concrete and steel are used as primary building materials in favour of wood despite their massive relative associated carbon emissions, because these materials are much cheaper to produce as they benefit from economies of scale with respect to their source ingredients, whereas timber must be grown from trees that take years to grow to suitable sizes.

QWEB wants to disrupt this industry default by providing a tool to help architects and designers within the construction sector understand the emissions associated with projects by comparing the carbon impact of construction materials. Together with Offside Wood, their mission was to increase awareness of embodied carbon footprint and make it a key deciding factor during the early phases of the project, when changes are easiest to make.

That solution is Carbon Fixers.

QWEB and Brainpool engaged in a scoping programme to define the project problem, objective, the deliverables, assessing the available data, and developing the technology strategy, specifications, project roadmap, resources, and timeline.

Brainpool worked closely with QWEB to leverage their expertise to inform the database creation and the UX/UI. Brainpool defined a scope of work for a Proof of Concept (PoC) that would validate the ability to generate accurate output.

The key steps Brainpool took in the development of the Carbon Fixers calculator were:

1. Build a comprehensive database of construction product categories with corresponding emission factors, using a combination of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) as well as public and private research data sources.
2. Build an API layer which centralises, cleans and structures data from various sources
3. Build a SaaS platform which queries the database based on supplied design specifications, aggregates emissions data and calculates the carbon footprint. This application can run comparative scenario analysis across different materials

Key Benefits:

• Quickly and easily compare the carbon footprint of different building designs and the materials used in their construction
• Inform more sustainable design and material choices in the construction sector
• Reduce the carbon emissions of construction sector, which accounts for 38% of total global energy related CO2 emissions
• Guide strategies and tactics to achieve the goal of carbon-neutral by 2050

“QWEB wanted to build a tool that counters the greenwashing around non-sustainable building materials and gives architects and construction firms the data and confidence to explore timber options. Carbon Fixer is like using a mortgage calculator before going to the bank, it gives an idea of what to expect.” - Eli Gould, US Architect Liaison and Software Project Lead at QWEB

Carbon Fixers is currently in alpha testing and Brainpool is working on converting the PoC system into a fully functioning and deployable minimal viable product (MVP).

The feedback will inform the direction of future development and new features. More information can be found on this website: https://offsitewood.org/carbon-fixers/