Expertise

Scaling up

Whole life carbon assessment and benchmarking Building stock modelling and scenarios Policy evidence and advisory

Scaling wide

Open data infrastructure Methods, standards and harmonisation Teaching and capacity building

Scaling deep

Bio-based and regenerative materials Sufficiency, renovation and housing

Scaling up: changing the rules

Evidence for the people writing the rules, and the methods that make it hold up.

How much is too much?

Whole life carbon assessment and benchmarking

We assess large samples of real buildings consistently, and derive the benchmarks and limit values that regulators and portfolio owners can set.

Whole life carbon assessment of buildings and portfolios, to a comparable scope
Benchmark and limit-value derivation, with the sensitivity analysis behind it
Benchmarking a portfolio against comparable stock
BIM-LCA and bill-of-quantities based embodied carbon analysis

ProjectsCollaborativeCarbon · European embodied carbon benchmarks · PEF4Buildings

PublicationsEmbodied carbon emissions of buildings and how to tame them · Carbon budgets for buildings: harmonizing temporal, spatial and sectoral… · Embodied carbon of European buildings database (EU-ECB-DB)

Typically for: Public authorities, portfolio holders, industry bodies, funders

Where is the stock heading, and what changes that?

Building stock modelling and scenarios

Bottom-up models of national and regional building stocks, run against carbon budgets to 2050 and beyond. They are built to be repeated by national teams rather than bought from us.

Baseline and scenario modelling for building stocks, national or EU-wide
Archetype development and harmonised material and energy flow data
Trajectory analysis to 2050 under combinations of policy levers
Open scenario tooling national teams can run themselves

The models are built to be repeated by national teams rather than bought from us. The EU27 baseline behind the revised EPBD came out of this work.

ProjectsEU buildings emissions analysis · Global Whole Life Carbon Tracker · EU whole life carbon roadmap

PublicationsContext-specific life cycle emissions pathways for EU buildings and construction · Environmental modelling of building stocks - an integrated review of life… · wlc-scenario-explorer: an open source tool for exploring building stock whole…

Typically for: European Commission, national ministries and agencies, international organisations

What should the rule say?

Policy evidence and advisory

We turn a target into a sequence of decisions, with the evidence for each, from the EPBD and the EU Taxonomy to national roadmaps and sufficiency strategies.

Evidence and technical input for legislative processes and impact assessments
Advice on assessment methods: what to measure, how, and with what data
Target development, from a budget-based rationale to usable limit values
Decarbonisation roadmaps and implementation strategy, with interim targets and indicators
Alignment with the EPBD, the EU Taxonomy and reporting duties
Sufficiency and reuse strategies, where building less is on the table

ProjectsEU whole life carbon roadmap · Agora lead markets · Global Status Report

PublicationsTowards an information landscape fit for environmental policy in the built… · Analysis of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of EU buildings and… · Environmental benchmarks for buildings: needs, challenges and solutions

Typically for: Public authorities and large public portfolio holders, cities and regions, industry associations

Scaling wide: reaching greater numbers

Shared infrastructure that lets many actors act at once.

What data does a country need to govern this?

Open data infrastructure

Databases, reporting schemas and national data programmes, with open-source tools so the capability stays where it is needed.

Design of building LCA databases, data models and reporting schemas
National data collection programmes, from sampling design to governance
Statistical analysis of EPD and building assessment data
Open-source tooling, dashboards and trackers in Python

ProjectsGBDI · INDICATE LIFE · Chile data harmonisation

PublicationsA global buildings database: whole life cycle GHG emissions, energy… · SLiCE: an open building data model for scalable high-definition life cycle… · Data infrastructure for whole-life carbon emissions baselines of buildings in…

Typically for: Governments setting benchmarks, data initiatives, funders and philanthropies

Can these numbers be compared?

Methods, standards and harmonisation

We make numbers comparable across tools, standards and countries: methods where none exist yet, and alignment where several compete.

Method development where no accepted method yet exists
Harmonised LCA methods and workflows across countries
Alignment of data formats and reporting, such as OpenBDF
Data quality and reproducibility appraisal

ProjectsIEA EBC Annex 72 · PEF4Buildings · Chile data harmonisation

PublicationsIEA EBC Annex 72 - Assessing life cycle related environmental impacts caused by… · Using systematic building decomposition for implementing LCA: the results of a… · The Global Building Data Initiative (GBDI): Open Data Methods and Tools for… · CLEAR: a coalition to make whole life carbon numbers mean the same thing

Typically for: Public authorities, standardisation and industry bodies, data initiatives

Who will do this after we leave?

Teaching and capacity building

Training, executive briefings, workshops and co-supervision, often with local teams, so that the capability outlasts the project.

Method training for national teams and assessment practitioners
Executive briefings on what the coming requirements actually demand
Workshop design and facilitation for consortia and stakeholder processes
Keynotes and conference contributions
Co-supervision of doctoral and masters research

ProjectsGBDI China and India · INDICATE · INDICATE LIFE

PublicationsHow to establish whole life carbon benchmarks - insights and lessons learned… · Two whole life carbon sessions at COP31, 16 November · Whole life carbon for India's building sector - GBDI webinar with IIT Bombay

Typically for: National consortia, professional bodies, universities, conference organisers

Scaling deep: working with pioneers

Testing what is possible with the networks that build differently, and keeping carbon from crowding out everything else.

Can the building itself store carbon?

Bio-based and regenerative materials

We assess building with bio-based, earth-based and low-carbon materials over the whole life cycle, including how much carbon a building stock can store, and what that asks of forests and supply chains.

Life cycle assessment of bio-based, earth-based and low-tech construction
Biogenic carbon accounting and storage potential, from building to global stock
Carbon uptake in buildings through mineral carbonation
Lead markets for low-carbon steel and cement

ProjectsAgora lead markets · CollaborativeCarbon

PublicationsCarbon storage and mitigation potential of structural wood and biochar-based… · Biogenic carbon dioxide storage and mineral carbonation uptake in EU buildings · Bio-based building material solutions for environmental benefits over…

Typically for: Material producers and industry, funders, public authorities

Do we need to build this at all?

Sufficiency, renovation and housing

Using what exists before building new: renovating, extending and sharing space, and housing designed with the people who live in it. We quantify what that saves, from one home to Europe's building stock.

Impact hierarchies and savings potential for renovation and extension
Whole life carbon of collaborative and community-led housing
Sufficiency as a measurable strategy
Low-tech passive design

ProjectsRe:Living · CollaborativeCarbon

PublicationsThe housing we need for the future we want · Low-tech passive solar design concepts and bio-based material solutions for… · wohnlabor - gemeinsam wohnen gestalten

Typically for: Housing providers and cooperatives, cities, industry partners, foundations

Global South and emerging markets

Most of the floor area of the coming decades will be built in the Global South. Across all three strands, a growing share of our work is with partners in China, India, Chile and South Africa: shared data, local capacity, and methods built with local teams rather than imported.

ProjectsGBDI China and India · Chile data harmonisation · GBDI

PublicationsTimely deployment of best-in-class technologies to enable development and… · Life cycle GHG emissions of residential buildings in humid subtropical and… · Keynote at the CBPM Conference, Cape Town · Green procurement of low-carbon concrete - what came out of the Beijing seminar · Whole life carbon for India's building sector - GBDI webinar with IIT Bombay

Work with us

We would rather hear the problem than the brief. We cover the whole life cycle, from cost and carbon to environmental and, increasingly, social impacts, and every scale from a single building to national and global building stocks. Tell us the decision in front of you, and we will tell you what evidence would hold up.

Scaling up

You need numbers you can trust

Commission a baseline, benchmark, limit value or scenario study.

For example: EU whole life carbon roadmap · European embodied carbon benchmarks

Commission a study →
Scaling up

You are (re-)writing the rules

Bring us in for targets, methods and roadmaps, from first draft to impact assessment.

For example: Global Status Report · Agora lead markets

Ask for policy advice →
Research partnership

You are developing a project

Bring us in as partner or work package lead: life cycle cost, carbon and impacts, from single buildings to global stocks.

For example: Global Whole Life Carbon Tracker · EU buildings emissions analysis

Partner with us →
Scaling wide

You want change that lasts

Fund an initiative that builds shared data and capacity, from pilot to self-sustaining.

For example: INDICATE · GBDI

Fund an initiative →
Scaling wide

You want to put data to work

Join a data programme: collect, harmonise and use comparable whole life carbon data to set benchmarks and policy in your country.

For example: INDICATE LIFE · Chile data harmonisation

Join a data programme →
Scaling deep

You are trying something new

Renovation first, shared housing, bio-based materials: we measure what it saves, and what it would take to scale.

For example: Re:Living · CollaborativeCarbon

Test it with us →

Looking for training, a workshop or a speaker, or something else entirely? Write to office@riselabs.at.

Not sure where you fit? See the eight questions we answer →