Impact of pavilion design on sustainable outcomes

At a price tag of $50 billion, the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games was the most expensive winter games in history, but with stories of facilities from previous Olympic Games going unused, KLH Sustainability decided to look into the impact of temporary structures and pavilion design on sustainable outcomes.

Calculating the carbon footprint of temporary structures can be the first step any organisation takes when deciding on approaches to their pavilion design. An increasing number of organisations are starting to monitor their carbon footprint in order to limit their environmental impact and improve their reputation amongst shareholders and customers.

KLH Sustainability carried out a life-cycle carbon footprinting analysis of two approaches to pavilion design and their impact on sustainable outcomes. The results showed that in both approaches, the embodied carbon associated with material production is by far the biggest contributor to overall lifecycle carbon emissions (approximately 72%) and that by optimising the use of hire components the embodied carbon of construction can be reduced by 58%.

The analysis showed that minimising material consumption through intelligent design and engineering, delivers benefits further down the line. These include; a reduction in fuel consumption during construction, low waste generation, reduction in build time and reduction in supply chain risk. During the life-cycle carbon footprinting analysis, lessons were learned from each stage; from concept to procurement, construction, deconstruction and disposal. Lesson such as; redefining the endpoint as the removal of the temporary pavilion rather than the event itself to optimise design for deconstruction and reallocation of assets to charity groups; to considering the location of recycling facilities during the deconstruction and disposal stage.