Carbon & PAS 2080 Tracker

Carbon just became a contractual requirement. And it's your data.

PAS 2080 has moved from corporate aspiration to procurement criterion — embedded through National Highways' SDF2 framework, certified on East West Rail, adopted early by Network Rail. Carbon is calculated from quantities, by work package, profiled over the programme. That is project controls data, which is how this landed on your desk.

See a worked baseline
Home › Carbon & PAS 2080

A worked baseline

Eight work packages, thirteen quantity lines, nine reduction opportunities

Earthworks, piling, substructure, superstructure, pavement, logistics and site energy. A 30% reduction target. Nine opportunities on the register at various stages.

Baseline
12,695
Counted cuts
1,899
Gap to target
1,909
Gap valued
£514k
Three things the tracker surfaces without being asked. The scheme is SHORT of its 30% target by 1,909 tCO2e. 849 tCO2e of "reductions" are still only Identified and are correctly excluded — intentions are not reductions. And one quantity line has no matching emission factor, so it was silently contributing zero and understating the baseline. That last one is how carbon reports quietly become wrong.

The reduction hierarchy is the point

PAS 2080 ranks reductions. A plan made entirely of the bottom tier is a weak plan however good the total looks — so the tracker shows the split rather than burying it.

Avoid

Build nothing, or build less. Deleting scope, shortening piles, reusing site-won material. The largest reductions live here and they are almost always design decisions taken early.

Biggest wins, earliest window

Switch

Build differently. GGBS replacement, recycled reinforcement, HVO instead of gas oil. Real reductions, usually with a commercial conversation attached.

Material, needs procurement

Improve

Build efficiently. Plant, logistics, waste, site energy. Worth doing, but a plan made only of these is one that missed the two tiers above.

Marginal on its own

In the sample, Avoid makes up 31% of counted reductions — enough to show the plan is not leaning entirely on efficiency gains.

What's in it

1

Emission Factors

kgCO2e per unit with a mandatory Source column. Unsourced factors are counted and flagged — they are the first thing a reviewer queries.

2

Carbon Baseline

Quantity × factor by work package and element. Lines with no matching factor are flagged rather than silently scoring zero.

tCO2e = quantity × factor ÷ 1000
3

Reduction Register

Opportunities by hierarchy, with owner, status and confidence. Only Committed and Delivered items reach the forecast.

4

Forecast vs Target

Baseline, counted reductions, forecast, gap — plus the Avoid share, so the quality of the plan is visible alongside its size.

5

Carbon Profile

Carbon by period against a target line, so it sits beside the programme. Carbon lands when the material does.

6

Assurance

Six checks a reviewer will run: unsourced factors, unreplaced placeholders, missing factors, unowned opportunities, missing hierarchy.

Pricing

Carbon & PAS 2080

$249
One-time purchase
  • Capital carbon baseline
  • Sourced emission factor library
  • Avoid / Switch / Improve register
  • Forecast, target and gap
  • Six assurance checks

Complete suite

$1,399
All eight products
  • PROJECT CONTROL CENTER
  • Forecast Engine + 8 industry packs
  • Schedule Quality Analyser
  • Progress Measurement System
  • NEC4 Compliance Tracker
  • Disruption Register
  • Carbon & PAS 2080 Tracker

Progress Measurement

$199
Supplies the quantities
  • Rules of credit progress
  • Quantities by work package
  • Feeds the carbon baseline
  • Natural pairing
See the System

Questions

Because carbon is calculated from quantities, by work package, profiled over the programme — which is project controls data. On most schemes the carbon number is currently assembled by whoever has the quantities, and that is you.
No, and the workbook says so in red on the first sheet. They are indicative placeholders so the arithmetic works on opening. You must replace them with factors from a verified source — the ICE database, supplier EPDs, or your client's mandated dataset — and record that source. The Assurance sheet counts how many you have not replaced.
No. Certification is an assessment of your management system by a certification body. This tracks capital carbon against a baseline and a target in an auditable way, which is a part of what you would need — not a substitute for it.
Because a reduction plan made entirely of Improve items — better plant, tighter logistics — is a weak plan however good the total looks. The big reductions come from Avoid: building nothing, or building less. The tracker shows the split so it is visible rather than buried in a total.
Only Committed and Delivered reductions count. Anything still marked Identified is an intention, not a reduction. In the sample that keeps 849 tCO2e of good ideas out of the forecast — which is the difference between a carbon report and a wish list.
Operational and user carbon. This is capital carbon for construction — the A1 to A5 stages. It is not a full life-cycle assessment and not a replacement for a carbon specialist where carbon is a scored contractual obligation.

A carbon number nobody can trace is an assertion

Sourced factors. Auditable baseline. Reductions that actually count.