SCHOOL MAINTENANCE & DESIGN
Decarbonising school buildings. How you can make a difference
T
he UK Government has recently allocated funds for building refurbishments and retrofit work aimed at decarbonising many of our Government and NHS buildings, and social housing. It may well follow that similar funding may be aimed at other sectors including education, so I would like to talk about what decarbonisation might mean for your buildings.
Comment by RICHARD AYLEN Technical Manager, Junckers Ltd
Historically when designers and engineers first focused on reducing our buildings’ impact on global warming, energy use was the main focus because this was where the greatest gains could be made. They adopted efficient heating and cooling plant, improved thermal insulation and draughtproofing and this has been reasonably successful. Some schools, notably in Scotland, have chosen to build their new schools to the Passivhaus standard, which demands levels of energy efficiency higher than those in our Building Regulations. Following a reasonable level of success, we are now seeing a greater focus on embodied carbon, which is the carbon contained in the materials and components that are used for the fabric of the building. An education professional involved with refurbishment of existing buildings can do little to change the embodied carbon in an existing buildings’ foundations or its structural frame (concrete has very high levels of embodied carbon). Unless the building is to be demolished, leaving the main elements in place is often the most sustainable option. However, you can influence the building’s embodied carbon levels and therefore its effect upon global warming, when you replace finishes such as floors, ceilings, joinery, glazing,
roof coverings and the like.
My expertise lies with flooring, and I believe that some examples from my industry can be a useful template for selection of sustainable materials for other parts of the building too. Timber floors, for example, are made from a low carbon or “carbon neutral” material and are clean and easy to recycle. Trees collect carbon from the atmosphere as they grow, so have a positive effect upon the environment. Depending on which manufacturer you choose, specifying a wooden floor helps to reduce atmospheric carbon levels. On the “avoid” list you might put materials that require high levels of energy to manufacture e.g. ceramic and terrazzo flooring, especially if the factory is not powered by renewable energy. Look also at what effect the basic raw materials for the product may have. Some materials can cause an increase in carbon, for example synthetic flooring such as vinyl or polyurethane. These products are derived from crude oil, and when worn out they will either be incinerated or sent to landfill. The carbon that was previously contained underground in the form of crude oil will be released into the earth’s atmosphere and will increase global warming. Using recycled plastics is unlikely to be a reliable long term strategy because there is little evidence to suggest that you can recycle plastic more than once.
Clients can find it difficult to know where they can obtain reliable and consistent sustainability information, but such a source exists in the form of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) which provide a reliable account of the product’s effect upon global warming for its entire life cycle.
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www.education-today.co.uk June 2024
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