Morgan Sindall’s ‘Circular Twin’ addresses climate change

October 14, 2021

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‘Circular Twin’ launched by construction firm Morgan Sindall aims to address climate change and demonstrate the delivery of low carbon buildings

Morgan Sindall Construction has announced it has been working with leading businesses from different disciplines within the built environment on an industry-first digital twinning project that will challenge existing design, procurement, and construction practices to deliver low carbon buildings and help address the climate emergency.

known as Circular Twin, The landmark study involved the digital construction of a school that had already been completed and reworking the scheme from start to finish so that each decision and design choice favoured a lower carbon outcome.

The project experimented with new working methods, notably adapting who was involved in design work and when, to form an early alliance of experts, with a shared goal to reduce the building’s Whole Life Carbon.

Circular Twin project research uncovers a revelation

Louise Townsend, Director of Social Value and Sustainability at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “This initiative has uncovered a revelation - that low carbon construction is inhibited by our industry’s reliance on traditional design and procurement approaches. The outcomes show that achieving low carbon buildings IS possible today.

“Our proposition is that by engaging with contractors at the design stage, we can work with customers to design significantly lower carbon buildings, whilst also working within their budget parameters. Of course, there will be trade-offs and the ultimate cost depends on how far the client wants to go in terms of reducing carbon.

“Ultimately, Circular Twin represents hard evidence of what can be achieved and is a much-needed industry-led response to all the urgent challenges we face that will be highlighted at COP26 and have already been made explicit by the climate emergencies declared by local authorities around the country.”

The team behind Circular Twin

The project team was brought together by Morgan Sindall Construction as a top-tier contractor with design and build responsibilities, along with procurement specialist SCAPE, architects HLM and Lungfish, and the multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Cundall. They discarded conventional industry approaches and collaborated, pooling their extensive experience in both education, construction, and sustainable design.