Sustainability
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Why Net Zero building regulations must come faster and go further
The UK’s Net Zero Strategy is complex and multi-faceted, and with the built environment being one of the largest GHG emittors, it has a key role to play in achieving Net Zero by 2050. Mitakshi Sirsi, director of sustainability at WILL+Partners argues this requires systemic changes in our “business as usual” attitudes and at the very least, considerable transformation of current building stock, innovation, and changes in infrastructure, materials and fuel use
T
his is a massive task which requires immediate work - the industry needs regulations to catch up and aid consistent and
scaled improvements, pave a clearer path in the next few years and set a precedent for achieving a Net Zero building stock by 2050.
Regulations are evolving, but slowly.
After COP26 in 2021, the government set “future standards” for buildings in 2025 - regulation amendments for both domestic and non-domestic buildings, including interim standards which came into effect in June 2022. While these ask new buildings to go further than previous requirements for operational carbon efficiency, it also confirms that the government is relying on the decarbonisation of the grid as a principle route to decarbonising our building stock, possibly disregarding the pressing need to retrofit existing stock. Producing buildings which are “zero carbon
ready” due to a planned shift in fuel mix, without also acting to solve the retrofit need poses fundamental challenges. For example, it creates dependencies which increase the real risks of achieving planned outcomes. It also does not address the problems of overconsumption due to existing inefficient building stock, sustaining high energy demands (central to the conversation around rising prices), and also affecting long-term resilience of our building stock. Needless to say, this situation is disappointing. Consensus remains among industry professionals that we simply aren’t going far or fast enough and we need more wide- ranging and impactful policies.
Embodied carbon
A key focus area should be the embodied carbon of a building. These are essentially the emissions that are “embedded” in the building, associated
12 October 2022
Mitakshi Sirsi, director of sustainability at WILL+ Partners
“Recent studies have indicated embodied carbon of HVAC represents between 3-25% in domestic buildings and 15-36% of office buildings, add the impact of refrigerants and leaks, and this increases.”
with the supply chain of producing and managing a built asset and its end-of-life. Unlike emissions from operational energy-use these cannot be reduced over time, requiring them to be managed or eliminated at source. Recent studies have indicated that embodied
carbon of HVAC represents between 3-25% in domestic buildings and 15-36% of office buildings, add the impact of refrigerants and leaks, and this increases further. With more cooling being specified in projects, and an increasing number of fit-outs in offices, these proportions could increase further - sufficient reason for us to act urgently on the issue. There is currently limited focus on embodied carbon in the rules, except in the London plan. The
industry is lagging behind on resource optimisation and consciousness and new regulations have the potential to drive innovations in retrofitting, circularity, and material use, while reducing the overall emissions from the sector. In July 2021, key industry experts proposed amendments to current UK building regulations to regulate embodied carbon in construction. Known as “Part Z”, backed by leading industry organisations and publicly launched in March 2022, it recommends setting limits for embodied carbon on all projects over 1,000 m2 in size. Constructors are currently able to use as much embodied carbon as they like, and bringing Part Z to fruition will hopefully be gamechanging. If we don’t, forecasts suggest that embodied carbon will account for up to 90% of the carbon released from newly constructed buildings between 2015 and 2050.
How can these challenges be addressed?
While regulations catch up, we need to reduce, reuse, recycle, renew, redesign, and… repeat. Many projects are now endeavouring to reuse, recycle or repurpose ducting and steel, reducing unnecessary overspecification, and applying design optimization techniques using AI technologies. Data collection and material passports are another avenue. Interdisciplnary ideas such as using indoor and outdoor planting to regulate temperatures have proven useful and we also have the hidden “passive design” weapon in our arsenal. We already have some of the answers, and many are looking for more. We now need action. Innovation is key and we must treat every
project as a pilot for ideas – while this might sound drastic or scary, it doesn’t have to be. We can all contribute by leaving our comfort silos just a little. By embracing collaboration and learning from the experiences of others, incremental changes can be made which are capable of achieving significant results over time.
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