Foundations and basements can be a large part of the embodied carbon of a building.

This can happen when tall, heavy buildings are planned on sites without considering the soil strength and the foundations needed. It can be worse than shown here with 30 meter piles for small buildings on weak soils and tall towers with 2m foundations on strong soil.

The British Geological Survey do a great job of making information about UK soil available. As designers we can all look at the borehole maps, understand the soil and design to reduce the foundations.