Copenhagen, Prototype
2023 - 2024
Urban Decarb
Quantifying the carbon footprint of buildings has undoubtedly come into greater focus in recent years, but it’s time we acknowledge that buildings cannot be examined in isolation. The immense impact of embodied carbon on an urban scale – that is the emissions associated with the whole lifecycle of material components in our cities – is too often overlooked.
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To take on this challenge, our team of architects, urbanists, and computational designers have developed Urban Decarb - a tool for integrating otherwise siloed carbon knowledge of urban components in the early design stages of urban development. Urban Decarb marks a significant step in utilizing embodied and operational carbon as design parameters in urban planning by looking at the city as a whole – from buildings to roads, parking, landscaping, and infrastructural urban systems.
“As our cities and populations grow in tandem with climate change, designing for healthy living and resilience at an urban scale is more crucial than ever. We want to help our clients assess the carbon footprint of existing urban areas leading up to redevelopment and transformation. The purpose of this is to ensure that all stakeholders - from property owners and municipalities to designers, engineers, and even community members - are making informed decisions surrounding the project’s environmental impact,” explains global design director, Signe Kongebro.
As an interactive tool, Urban Decarb supports processes of 3D modeling with data on embodied carbon, visualizing the carbon impact of different scenarios as they are being modeled in real-time. Based on synchronized datasets associated with the geographic context of the project, it presents designers with approximations that make it possible to assess the impact of their design decisions early on, by comparing the carbon cost of scenarios as they are being modeled in real-time.
Pushing decarbonization efforts
The tool introduces new and unique knowledge to the design process, ensuring alignment with both global and local climate strategies. It’s also a means of deepening contextual understanding to include a carbon focus and, most importantly, create an immense environmental impact when scaled.
“Urban Decarb is developed as a design tool, but it also holds significant strategic value for landowners, authorities, and developers who want to engage in a conversation about how they can optimize and strengthen the sustainability profile of their project. By providing a clear overview and a sound baseline for any project, it acts as a first step towards greener, more sustainable urban development.” - Gustav Brade, Director, Strategic Urban Development.
We are continuously testing, optimizing, and evaluating the tool together with clients and collaborators.
Urban Decarb is funded by the Ramboll Innovation Fund.
“Our new strategy outlines that in 2025, Ramboll wants to be the Partner for Sustainable Change. To enable us to address and solve some of the biggest challenges of society, we need to harness the power of digital technology and innovation together with our domain expertise. Urban Decarb is a perfect example of that,” says Group Head of Innovation, Jason B. Miller about the project.
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Signe Kongebro
Global Design Director, Urbanism, Partner
Design Engineer
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