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UK’s first hydrogen strategy
GREEN ENERGY STRATEGY
Government publishes its hydrogen strategy e ennt t g ge gen en n
by Herpreet Kaur Grewal
The government announced the UK’s first-ever hydrogen strategy this summer. Hydrogen has the potential to provide a third of the country’s energy, including to commercial and residential buildings.
By 2030, hydrogen could play a crucial role in decarbonising polluting, energy-intensive industries such as chemicals, oil refineries, power and heavy transport by helping these sectors move away from fossil fuels.
The government is consulting on the formulation of the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund to support the deployment of low-carbon hydrogen production plants across the UK.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business and energy secretary, said the strategy “marks the start of the UK’s hydrogen revolution. This home-grown clean energy source has the potential to transform the way we power our lives and will be essential to tackling climate change and reaching net zero”. Steve McGregor, group managing director of property services specialist DMA Group, said: “Commercial and residential contributions of all sizes will help create a greener, safer environment for generations and it is vital that we begin building ambitious, large-scale infrastructure with cutting-edge green technologies across the UK. By unlocking targeted investment, grants and incentives the ambition of delivering better homes and buildings, cleaner air and a safer environment is in sight. But most crucially of all, it provides genuine optimism for British innovation after what has been a turbulent 18 months.”
Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive at environmental body the UK Green Building Council, said: “How we decarbonise heat whilst delivering a fair transition for consumers is a fundamental issue for the UK’s built environment, and how our sector can play its part in reaching our national net zero target. As we look to decarbonise across the entire construction and property value chain, hydrogen should be used where it adds most value, such as in certain industrial processes that are otherwise difficult to decarbonise.
“The future use of hydrogen is just one element of our decarbonisation journey. We urge the government to release its Heat and Buildings Strategy without delay in order to give the sector both clarity and certainty on what the future of heat will look like.”
Stewart Clements, director at the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council (HHIC), said: “Investment in hydrogen will not only, as the strategy states, create thousands of high-skill, well-paid jobs, it also safeguards the jobs and expertise we already have in our world-leading heating industry.
“Our member companies are fully behind a transition from natural gas to zero carbon hydrogen and have already been hard at work creating ‘hydrogen-ready’ products, including boilers, cookers and fires that are currently being trialled. HHIC is actively involved in the UK hydrogen projects and has worked with manufacturers and the government on a definition for ‘hydrogen-ready’ boilers which could be rolled out from the middle of this decade.
IWFM SUSTAINABILITY SURVEY 2021 IW IWFWFM FM M 2021
The 14th annual IWFM T Thhee 1414t4thh sustainability survey report, just su susstataiainnab ab published, shows that carbon p pu pubublblisishheed / energy management and y/ / een enenererggy addressing net zero is a sharply a ad addddrdreessssi si escalating concern among the e essca caalaattin n 311 people to have responded 3 311 11 ppe peoeopopl pl to the 2021 questionnaire. to to o ththehe e 220 0 70 per cent of respondents 700 ppe perer cce – compared to 58 per cent – – ccoommp mpa pa in 2020 and 35 per cent in inn 220 202020 20 0 2018 – reported that this was 2 200188 –– – re re their top area of sustainability pt thheeirir ttoop focus. Nevertheless, most f fooccuus.s. NNe service provider respondents s seervrvicvicece e p p said that they were more likely saaidd t ththaat to play a "supporting role" to to o ppl plaay a y a rather than a leading one in rat raathheer r th th h their organisation's carbon ir oeirheth ororg rg e management planning. geagnaanma m The areas of carbon management FM teams were least likely to have any role in was sustainable food sourcing (43%), electrifying fleet (40%), and biodiversity (conservation 39% and landscaping 35%). 86 per cent of respondents said that 'additional forms of upskilling' would be essential for their personal sustainability knowledge and career development in the year ahead. The report's authors say that this shows "a real lack in the management level crossdelivery skills that are necessary
ment t likely ny role in was e food sourcing trifying fleet (40%), and d ty (conservation 39% tion39% caping 35%). cent of respondents additionalformsof to make many sustainability tomakemanysustainability programmes successful." One area of sustainability not seen as important or very important to at least half of survey respondents was biophilia (see article, right.). IWFM members can access the report by going to tinyurl.com/Fac0910-Sustain
BIOPHILIC DESIGN
Survey identifi es gap in knowledge around biophilia’s benefi ts
by Herpreet Kaur Grewal
In the IWFM’s newly published Sustainability Survey report for 2021 (see box, opposite page) tne area of sustainability not seen as important or very important to at least half of respondents is biophilia; just 34 per cent considered the topic as worthy of being described as such. Respondents reported that they felt least skilled and knowledgeable around biophilia (16 per cent), compared to current topics such as the circular economy (22 per cent) and outdoor air quality (24 per cent).
The IWFM report suggests that this could reflect the fact that, although biophilia was introduced in the 1980s, it has only more recently been widely recognised for its ability to improve health and wellbeing in the workplace.
In 1984, the biologist and double Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward O Wilson defined biophilia as “the innate tendency [in human beings] to focus on life and lifelike process. Our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hopes rise on its currents”.
Others argue that the recognition of biophilia goes back further. Dr Vanessa Champion, CEO of ArgentaWellness, told Facilitate in 2018 how “scientists and psychologists have since the 1960s identified the enormous benefits that living with nature confers on us” and that “it is only now that interior and exterior design is starting to celebrate this ideal to soften our environmental impact and enhance our wellbeing”.
A 2018 paper in the International Journal of Architectural Research
written by Mohamed S Abdelaal and Veronica Soebarto the authors state that “during the medieval Islamic Golden Era, higher education buildings of non-medical ‘madrasa’ and medical ‘bimaristan’ institutions applied specific techniques and strategies so that human intellectual curiosity could flourish through direct and indirect contact with nature”.
Their finding: “implementing the principles of biophilic design can have a positive impact on learners and producers in higher education (students, staff and faculty)” and “can profoundly enhance physical, psychological, cognitive and intellectual performance”.
Others have written about how the environments in which we live and work account for more than half of our overall levels of health.
Improved social cohesion
While grand schemes involving green walls can require significant maintenance, this work can be relatively cost-effective to outsource. And at its most basic, biophilic design can be incorporated into the typical workplace at minimal cost. The establishment of hybrid working as routine may also lead to more discussion about biophlic benefits, with workers’ experience of what they perceive as a more natural working environment in their own homes bringing the topic into discussions about how the workspace should follow suit.
The British Council of Offices (BCO) acknowledged in a recent report that biophilia “at the building level can be upscaled to the level of green infrastructure, which has been linked to improving social cohesion, improving mental and physical health, lower crime, economic vitality, increased property prices, better urban microclimates and reduced pollution”.
Meanwhile, wellbeing standards such as WELL, which sets building performance requirements in seven categories relevant to health, described biophilia as a feature that can be implemented within “design, technology, and treatment strategies to provide a built environment in which the occupant's mental and emotional wellbeing is enriched”.
With biophilia increasingly recognised for its importance to health, wellbeing and productivity, and the circular economy having a critical role in meeting net zero targets, the IWFM says that it is now looking at how the institute can help build skills and capabilities in this areas as a priority.
