The Federation of Piling Specialists (FPS) has completed the first comprehensive review of the embodied carbon in specialist foundations in the UK.
It drew on data from 63 projects in 2025, with member contractors contributing detailed information on a range of piling and ground engineering techniques.
From this, FPS calculates that its members generated some 330,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent on projects last year, associated with a combined turnover of £618m.
Undertaken by the FPS Sustainability Committee, the project provides a baseline against which future progress in reducing embodied carbon can be assessed.
It also allows the FPS to update its existing benchmarks for installation techniques and develop new ways of assessing carbon performance.
New assessment tools
Because foundation projects vary in scale, ground conditions, design requirements and construction methodology – all of which influence embodied carbon – the FPS correlated carbon emissions against different parameters. They include assessing emissions per £1m of turnover, per hours worked, and per cubic metre of concrete installed.
The FPS said these additional metrics offer its members new tools to understand the relationship between carbon emissions and project activity.
“By bringing together data from projects across the UK, we have been able to create the most accurate and comprehensive picture yet of embodied carbon emissions within our sector,” said FPS chair Stuart Norman.
“The findings not only allow us to update longstanding benchmarks, but also provide, for the first time, a good understanding of the total embodied carbon footprint of FPS members and how that relates to business activity across different techniques.
“This new dataset gives us the evidence base needed to focus our efforts and to identify where they can have the greatest impact.”
