Closing the gap between design and construction: How EIGO tracks carbon performance on-site

EIGO Construcciones is a construction company specializing in sustainable warehouse facilities for the logistics sector, with a dedicated EIGO Green sustainability methodology.

Industry

Construction / Logistics real estate

Company size

200+ employees

Headquarters

Zaragoza, Spain

Challenge

Generic Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) used during early-stage studies are often replaced by specific different products, suppliers, or quantities once procurement and construction begin. Without continuous monitoring, these changes can significantly alter the final carbon footprint, often without project teams realizing it. For an industrial production warehouse in Coslada, Madrid, EIGO carried out a whole life carbon assessment (WLCA) aligned with RICS requirements across modules A1–C4 (cradle to grave) over a 60-year reference period. The real challenge was implementing a methodology that would remain accurate and actionable as the project evolved from design phase to construction reality.

Solution

Led by Sustainability Manager Maialen Iturria and Sustainability Technician Valeria Salvador, EIGO structured the project around a five-step EIGO Green methodology integrated with One Click LCA:

Material inventory
Modeling
Carbon impact analysis
Lower-carbon design options
Construction-phase monitoring.

Project data was imported from BIM-exported IFC files or pre-design cost plans and converted into a structured material database within One Click LCA.

Using Material Compass, the team assigned Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to each material and established a baseline using generic datasets. Where manufacturers had no EPDs available, EIGO worked directly with suppliers to gather environmental data and created custom materials within One Click LCA’s private dataset. With a baseline of 328 kg CO₂e/m² established, bar charts and Sankey diagrams identified concrete and steel as the dominant carbon hotspots. Three lower-carbon measures were selected for implementation:

Green Spine Line prefabricated concrete structure and panels: 9.3% reduction on total project emissions
Reinforcing steel produced using 100% renewable energy for pile caps: 2.5% reduction
Recycled gravel substitutions: 0.31% reduction

Rather than stopping at design-stage optimization, EIGO continued tracking the project through a three-stage construction monitoring process within One Click LCA:

Verification of the optimized model using product-specific EPDs from actual on-site materials
Ongoing carbon tracking against the construction program throughout execution
Final as-built validation upon project completion.

Outcome

The EIGO Green methodology, combined with One Click LCA, enabled EIGO to close the gap between design-stage assumptions and on-site delivery. Early monitoring identified slight deviations from the optimized model, partly linked to transport distances from manufacturers, a level of granularity that would have remained invisible without active site-phase tracking. The project confirmed that major embodied carbon reductions can be achieved by focusing on a small number of high-impact materials, without significant additional cost or major design changes. Most importantly, the Coslada project reinforced that ongoing monitoring during construction is essential for ensuring that carbon targets established during design are actually delivered on site. The methodology is now embedded across EIGO’s project pipeline, from early design through to handover.

Results

Carbon Performance

12.2% reduction in embodied carbon

From 328 to 288 kg CO₂e/m² without any architectural design changes.

Process innovations

Real-time visibility

Real-time visibility into deviations between design-stage assumptions and on-site conditions, enabling informed decisions throughout construction.

Supply chain data

Custom EPD creation

Custom EPD creation in collaboration with suppliers where manufacturer data was unavailable, strengthening supply chain carbon data quality.

"LCA is becoming established as a fundamental tool for understanding and managing the environmental impact of buildings. It allows us to anticipate impact and guide decisions about materials and systems toward more sustainable solutions from the very start, and then verify those decisions are holding through construction."

Maialen Iturria Sustainability Manager EIGO Construcciones

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Real-time monitoring and hotspot detection

The Coslada warehouse project spanned the full project life cycle: a 10,990 m² concrete-frame facility assessed across modules A1–C4 (cradle to grave) over a 60-year reference period, covering foundations, structure, roof, facades, slabs, and external works.

Starting from a baseline of 328 kg CO₂e/m², the team used One Click LCA’s visualization tools to identify concrete and steel as the primary carbon hotspots. Three targeted substitutions reduced embodied carbon to 288 kg CO₂e/m², a 12.2% reduction, without requiring any redesign. The selection of the Green Spine Line prefabricated concrete system alone accounted for 9.3% of the total project emission reduction.

Construction monitoring revealed the value of continuous tracking. When deviations emerged due to changes in transport distances from manufacturers, the team could identify and respond to them in real time, rather than discovering discrepancies only after project completion. The final as-built validation confirmed that the design-stage carbon targets were met.

The project also demonstrated the value of working collaboratively with suppliers. Where manufacturer EPDs were unavailable, EIGO used One Click LCA’s private dataset functionality to create custom materials based on supplier-provided environmental data. This approach not only improved data accuracy for the Coslada project but also contributed to building a more complete carbon data library for future projects.

A repeatable, company-wide process

The EIGO Green methodology developed through the Coslada project is now a repeatable framework deployed across EIGO’s project pipeline. The company continues to develop its approach to construction-phase carbon monitoring, with the ambition of making verified, as-built carbon performance a standard deliverable across all projects.