IT
ADVERTORIAL
Zero Carbon: a shifting definition S
Jenny Smith-Andrews, Head of Marketing at H+H UK Ltd, considers how the zero carbon agenda is evolving, and what that means for manufacturers.
o what does Zero Carbon mean now? Since the very first zero carbon housing targets were set back in the early 2000’s we have been working
towards building new homes that are zero carbon in use. Although not always consistent, the direction of travel has been clear and the industry has moved to respond to each tightening of the Building Regulations. The Government’s target to achieve Net
Zero carbon emissions by 2050 has been on the table for some time, and we have been able to feel relatively comfortable about our progress as some of the really “big wins” around eliminating coal-fired power generation kept us generally on schedule. However, every industry is now waking up
to the fact that reaching the Net Zero target is going to affect all of us, in everything we do and in the way we live. In April, Government published its sixth Carbon Budget, committing the UK to a cut of 78% by 2035 against 1990 levels. That’s not just ambitious, that’s huge. And if we think this is not going to affect us as individuals, just take note of the fact that this Carbon Budget now specifically highlights aviation and shipping as areas for improvement. Zero carbon airplanes – how’s that for a technical challenge? We got a whiff of the scale of the changes that will be needed in our sector with the Future Homes Standard which looks likely to ban gas boilers in new homes from 2025. This is not asking industry to implement incremental changes to energy efficient building anymore – this is a radical step requiring real behavioural change. At the same time, major corporate
investors are starting to spell out their plans to withdraw from supporting enterprises which do not demonstrate sufficient commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. The result has been a rapid roll-out of zero carbon commitments from a wide range of organisations, including the major housebuilders. And this is where it gets really interesting. In the UK we have been slightly behind the rest of Europe in considering the issue of embodied carbon. Our approach has been very much to focus on the performance of the house, rather than the carbon produced in manufacturing the elements used to build it.
14 We have voluntary codes, such as the BRE
Green Guide To Specification, which consider the environmental impact of individual products, but, so far, no generally accepted methods to assess and compare the carbon emissions of different products, or any legislation to impose limits on embodied carbon in buildings. The problem with this piecemeal approach is that manufacturers have been free to make their own “zero carbon” claims without having to use a universally accepted definition of what the term means. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) are the internationally accepted way to address this issue. EPDs use a Life Cycle Assessment to measure a product’s embodied carbon emissions. Most significantly, this measurement process includes every stage of the product’s life – from manufacture and transport through the impact it has on the performance of the building and to its eventual destruction. Before any product manufacturer can make
credible claims for its embodied carbon, it needs to have concluded the thorough measurement and analysis of every stage of this process. Ideally, this measurement then needs to be examined by an independent authority too. This is the approach taken by H+H in the
publication of its Sustainability Report in 2020. In this document, H+H Group evaluates the environmental impact of its aircrete products throughout their lifecycle and sets out a clear plan for how the Group will reach a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This is not a minor undertaking and each national organisation within the Group is now planning its own route to achieving
the target. In the UK, for example, this will involve entirely redesigning the energy supply to the three factories to significantly increase the use of renewable energy sources. In our view this level of commitment will
be required by all manufacturers at every stage of the supply chain. No single product or service can solve the carbon conundrum on its own. Building a true zero carbon home requires a complex analysis of both the embodied carbon of the materials and the contribution they make to the energy efficient performance of the home throughout its lifespan. We would welcome legislation that sets
out a level playing field by which a product’s embodied carbon can be assessed against others using the same method of evaluation. Governments across Europe are on this path, with many set to introduce legal limits on embodied carbon for new buildings within the next decade. All of these are based on Lifecycle Assessments and it seems reasonable to assume that the UK Government will be turning its attention to equivalent legislation in the near future.
For more information on H+H products, please visit
www.hhcelcon.co.uk
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2021
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