Description
Estimated time: 3 hours
Language: English
Modality: Virtual
Course Summary
The Low-Carbon Circular Design Framework provides a comprehensive template for developing design guidance that promotes both low-carbon and circular outcomes in the built environment. Applicable to all materials, typologies, and systems, the framework equips participants with the knowledge to design structures that achieve the lowest whole-of-life embodied carbon while supporting system circularity.
Central to the course is the HERA Low-Carbon Circular Design Hierarchy, which visualizes strategies for both greenfield and brownfield projects. Building on the waste minimization hierarchy, the framework distinctly defines and integrates low-carbon and circular strategies, ensuring clarity while fostering synergies between the two. Participants will also gain an overview of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and its modules (A–D), understanding how LCA informs design decisions across the entire life cycle of a structure — from material sourcing to end-of-life reuse.
Through evidence-based concepts, case insights, and practical design scenarios, this course prepares learners to apply whole-of-life and cradle-to-cradle principles, supporting the transition toward dynamic LCA methodologies and truly sustainable design practices in the construction sector.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Explain the purpose and scope of the Low-Carbon Circular Design Framework and its relevance to sustainable construction.
Differentiate between circular and low-carbon design strategies within the HERA Design Hierarchy.
Apply the concepts of Life Cycle Assessment (Modules A–D) to evaluate embodied carbon and circularity throughout a building’s life cycle.
Identify design solutions that minimize whole-of-life embodied carbon and promote material or system circularity.
Integrate evidence-based and cradle-to-cradle approaches into design practices to achieve low-carbon and circular outcomes.
Evaluate how the framework supports the development of material- or typology-specific design guidance, preparing for the adoption of dynamic LCA methodologies.
Course includes
- 1 Lesson
- Sustainability
