PAS 2080: The Gold Standard for Carbon in Building Projects
A focused, credible approach to decarbonising your projects — and proving it.
From an environmental perspective, many indicators matter — water, materials, biodiversity. But carbon is the most important. It is the primary driver of climate change and consistently carries the highest weighting in environmental assessments. That’s why we prioritise carbon — and why we now offer PAS 2080-aligned carbon management as a core service for building and infrastructure projects.
Why PAS 2080?
For years, if you wanted to show a building project was sustainable, your only real options were:
a broad certification like Green Star or Living Building Challenge, or
a standalone LCA or ISO 14067 carbon footprint report
The problem?
LCAs and ISO reports are mostly retrospective. They're great for quantifying, but they don’t reward you for better design — just for how you report. Worse, they often turn into number-massaging exercises, disconnected from real-world decisions.
PAS 2080 is different.
It’s design-focused, not just reporting-focused. It’s about driving actual carbon reductions through better choices — early in design, through procurement, construction and even deconstruction. You’re not just ticking boxes; you’re demonstrating carbon leadership.
And critically — it’s recognised. PAS 2080 has the visibility, backing and structure that standard LCAs and carbon reports lack. It finally gives single building projects a credible, verifiable way to show they’ve genuinely reduced carbon.
What is PAS 2080?
The lack of comfort in a building is one of the largest causes of user complaints. With computer modelling, the levels of thermal comfort can be assessed and optimised at the design stage. This has the potential to reduce loads on heating and cooling equipment, and increase productivity over time.
A natural extension for Green Star projects
Already doing Green Star? Great — you're partway there. Green Star’s carbon focus aligns with PAS 2080 principles. With just a bit of additional work — particularly at the start and end of the project — you can elevate your Green Star carbon efforts into a formal PAS 2080 conformity claim.
This offers:
✓ Deeper credibility for carbon reductions
✓ Alignment with ESG and investor expectations
✓ An internationally recognised badge to support your sustainability marketing
✓ A clear pathway to BSI third-party verification, if desired
Our Services – PAS 2080 Implementation
We guide projects and organisations through the full PAS 2080 journey:
Carbon strategy and target setting
Baseline development and notional comparisons
Whole life carbon assessments (WLCAs)
Design integration and reduction strategies
Procurement and supply chain alignment
Documentation for conformity and verification
Training and internal capability development
Claiming PAS 2080 Conformity
There are two main pathways:
Self-declared conformity
You prepare and publish your documentation
Suitable for internal reporting, ESG, and project communications
Third-party verification (e.g. BSI)
Independent review and certification
Ideal for maximum credibility, public clients, and investor-grade reporting
We can help you prepare for either, depending on your goals.
Why this matters
Until now, there was no widely recognised way for a single project to show that it genuinely did well on carbon.
PAS 2080 changes that.
It’s a practical, rigorous, design-led framework. It helps you do the right thing and get recognised for it — without needing to commit to an entire building certification system or stop everything to write a standalone carbon report.
If you want to make a real impact — and be able to prove it — PAS 2080 is the best tool we’ve got.
Ready to lead with carbon?
We’re here to help you turn your climate commitments into measurable action.
Let’s talk about how PAS 2080 can support your next project.
