NBS, part of Hubexo, has entered into a long-term strategic partnership with BDP to strengthen NBS and BDP collaboration on carbon assessment across the UK construction sector. The agreement builds on BDP’s role in developing NBS LCA, a life-cycle carbon assessment platform designed to provide construction professionals with reliable and accessible carbon data throughout the design process. A key outcome of the collaboration is the creation of more than 1,300 pre-calculated generic assemblies that support carbon calculations for commonly used building fabric elements, along with major concrete and steel structural components. These pre-configured assemblies allow designers to apply whole-element carbon values to walls, floors, roofs and other standard building elements from the earliest project stages, helping establish consistent UK-relevant carbon benchmarks without manually calculating every material layer.
Jointly developed by BDP and NBS, the generic assemblies are intended to simplify early-stage carbon evaluation by reducing the time and effort required to prepare assessments while supporting informed design decisions that influence a project’s overall carbon footprint. In addition to developing the assemblies, BDP participated in collaborative workshops that helped shape the functionality of NBS LCA, ensuring the platform reflects practical UK construction workflows and day-to-day industry requirements. NBS and BDP say the approach enables professionals to integrate embodied carbon assessment directly into live design work instead of treating it as a separate process later in project development.
Dr Lee Jones, Head of Sustainability at Hubexo, said: “BDP’s contribution to NBS LCA has been invaluable. Their depth of project experience and technical knowledge has directly shaped the generic assemblies at the heart of the platform. These assemblies give designers a reliable, UK-relevant starting point for carbon assessment, without the burden of building everything from scratch. This is exactly the kind of collaboration that moves the industry forward, and we’re proud to be working with BDP on a long-term basis.”
Julia Yao, Associate, Sustainability Consultant at BDP, said: “Carbon assessment needs to be embedded in design from day one, not bolted on at the end. Working with NBS to develop its LCA product has been a genuine opportunity to put that principle into practice. The generic assemblies we developed draw on real project data and are designed to give designers meaningful, actionable carbon information at the concept stage. We’re delighted to see them at the core of a platform that will be used across the industry.”
The partnership comes as the UK Government continues to emphasise responsible carbon reporting through its Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, increasing demand for practical tools that support embodied carbon measurement. NBS LCA combines carbon calculations with structured information from Circular Ecology’s ICE Database and more than 12,500 verified, specification-ready construction products with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) available through NBS Source and ECO Portal. NBS and BDP said they will continue expanding their collaboration over the coming months with the shared objective of improving the quality and accessibility of carbon data for construction professionals across the UK.
