SUSTAINABILITY current healthcare space standards.
Option 4 (Newbuild*) – Demolish and rebuild to the upper limit of PassivHaus and current healthcare space standards.
Option 5 (NewbuildFlex*) – New-build + flex; Like Option 4, but with additional ‘flex’ in plan space and floor-to-floor heights to facilitate ease of future adaptation.
To help with readability we have used the terms DoNothing*, Retrofit*, RetrofitExtend*, Newbuild*, and NewbuildFlex* in the text to refer to these five options. We followed the methodology set out in the RICS Professional Statement, Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment, and measured the two key components of WLC: n Embodied carbon emissions from new construction and fabric maintenance, repair, renewal, and refurbishment (modules A1-A5 and B2-B5), and
n Operational carbon emissions from heating/cooling (module B6).
Aside from physical estate
redevelopment there are other important ways of reducing building whole life carbon emissions from NHS buildings, such as reducing space use through technology-enabled virtual care and intensive timetabling, better building systems programming, and simplified building operation to help users reduce energy use. These topics will be addressed in future studies.
Our findings
Retrofit* provides the lowest WLC emissions Our study found that the greatest reductions in short- and long-term emissions come from Retrofit*: making the walls, windows, and roofs better at keeping heat in or out (‘envelope upgrades’), and changing heating systems from gas- fired to electric heat pumps (‘system upgrades’).
Although DoNothing* and Retrofit*
represent the lowest cumulative GHG emissions by 2035 (the UK target date for 78% GHG emission reduction), Retrofit* represents the preferred approach to meet both short-term savings over RetrofitExtend*, Newbuild* and NewbuildFlex* (by avoiding new-build) and long-term savings over DoNothing* (through greater fabric efficiency). The embodied carbon cost of fabric and
systems retrofit (Retrofit*) is recouped by the operational carbon savings over business as usual (DoNothing*) within approximately five years – the point where the cumulative carbon emissions lines for the two options cross. The relative values of different WLC
Figure 3:
Projected 60-year cumulative carbon emissions by WLC component module for each strategic option (all shown at the same scale).
Option 1 – DoNothing* No building upgrades, apart from backlog maintenance (showing up in B3). n B6 dominates.
Figure 3b Figure 3a
Option 2 – Retrofit*
Upgrade the building envelope (overclad) and heating systems to current Part L standards, as
well as undertaking the remaining backlog maintenance.
n Increase in A1-A5 for the retrofit is more than compensated for by the reduction in B6.
Option 3 – RetrofitExtend*
Like option 2 Retrofit*, but extend the existing building (at the upper limit of PassivHaus standards for the new build) to enable internal reconfiguration to meet current healthcare space standards.
n Potential reduction in B6 from improved fabric and systems performance is offset by greater
volume of building that needs heating. n Greater volume of building (to meet healthcare space standards) requires bigger quantity of the improved building systems, which is accompanied by the corresponding higher B4 Replacement Embodied Carbon.
Figure 3d Figure 3c
Option 4 – Newbuild*
Demolish and rebuild to the upper limit of PassivHaus and current healthcare space standards. n Higher A1-A5 reflects the high upfront embodied carbon cost of new-build.
Figure 3e
Option 5 – NewbuildFlex* Like Option 4, but with additional
flex in plan space and floor-to-floor heights to facilitate ease of future adaptation.
n B5 refurbishment carbon is
reduced, making it an even smaller portion of overall carbon.
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