8 minute read
In the dock over Net Zero
One of the most important issues of our times is how organisations create a low carbon, energy efficient and sustainable future for themselves and the estate they manage. To which end, empowering energy and facilities managers to do evetything in their power about power is important. And it was these professionals who gathered, as has become the norm in recent years, at the EMEX energy management event last November.
What emerged at EMEX feeds into what has emerged as aa new year’s rallying cry in this edition of Facilitate. As is recounted in our main features later in these pages, issues of strategy development and implementation, and the many challenges in meeting them, now trump – or are at least as important as – issues of technological capability or the ability to capture performance data.
EMEX delegates heard that the most significant hindrances come where there is a lack of leadership and joined-up visions – a problem exacerbated when it comes from government itself. Indeed, one speaker at EMEX pointed to the lack of consistency even when it comes to green policy implementation within politics.
Ed Gemmell, leader of the recently launched Climate Party, told EMEX delegates: “The problem is that the government can be good with setting strategies… but not with the levers to get there… there is a great fear of implementation.”
Gemmell was speaking on a panel session about the UK’s energy crisis. The lack of ‘levers’ meant that climate change as an agenda “lacked the leadership needed to really drive it forward”.
DECARBONISATION
Government fi nds itself in the dock over Net Zero by Herpreet Kaur Grewal and Martin Read
He added that core issues such said Gemmell. “The technology is as the refurbishment of housing there, the metrics are there – but we stock, more environmentally need leadership.” friendly transport and more green Lord Rupert Redesdale heating methods, while “well on (pictured), chair of the session, the way” in theory because of concurred by adding that there was certain government pledges, were a lack of this understanding “in all not part of any “coherent plan” to political parties”. drive policies forward in a joined- Baroness Bennett of Manor up, collective way. Castle, a life peer representing the “What we need is real leadership,” Green Party, said the government
GOALS FOR 2023
had “no clear vision” of how all its different green policy pledges connected. She called for ”system change not climate change” as this was what she identified as undermining the implementation of green policies.
Lord Robin Teverson, Lords spokesperson on energy and climate change for the Liberal Democrats, called the government’s scorecard analysis concluding that most of the government’s proposals or plans failed to deliver progress towards, or indeed even ‘actively hindered’, a net zero carbon built environment.
Policies for the UK’s buildings are piecemeal and not designed to drive the scale and pace of change needed, the UKGBC continued. Current policies put the UK on track for only around half of the emissions cuts needed.
Policy to decarbonise nondomestic buildings has frozen and draft policy for new homes and building standards from 2025 falls far short, UKGBC concludes. England’s planning system currently frustrates net zero goals, while the issue of embodied carbon represents ‘a huge gap in government policy’.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOVERNMENT
UKGBC’s has identified what it says should be important government goals for 2023: ● An overhaul of the planning system to support net zero, with climate and nature improvement at its core. ● An end to building homes and buildings
‘not fit for net zero’. ● The forthcoming consultation on the
Future Homes and
Buildings Standard,
to be introduced in 2025, ‘must set a path to new buildings that are genuinely zero carbon’. ● A focus on fasttrack retrofit of UK homes. (‘There are almost no policies to encourage and support owner occupiers to decarbonise their homes and no national retrofit strategy to upgrade all the UK’s homes’.)
dependence on nuclear energy short-sighted. Speaking before the end of year announcements from California, he said “nuclear fusion is a form of clean energy in a way and it should be explored, but we should not rely on it [solely] for the future”.
Gemmell also called for energy managers to collaborate directly with parish and town councils to demand changes to energy policies.
It is interesting to see so much coming from the machinery of government itself about the scale of the issue. Just weeks after the EMEX session, government was being told that it had made an ‘alarming lack of progress’ in decarbonising the built environment over the past year. The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has assessed progress since the government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy, launched in October 2021. UKGBC has compared the policies announced or in delivery against the policy recommendations made in its Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap for the Built Environment, the Bold and ambitious
UKGBC’s view is that industry is ready and willing to take on the significant challenges in front of it – but that national government leadership to drive industry-wide progress is needed.
“Bold ambitious government policy to decarbonise the built environment is a huge opportunity for the economy and for green businesses, yet our analysis shows it is largely missing within the current government’s agenda,” said UKGBC chief executive Julie Hirigoyen.
“However, the new government has a chance to put things right and the next year is critical. The size of the prize is huge in terms of saved energy bills, energy security, a massive jobs boom, and levelling up and export opportunities. Stepping up action in this area is the definition of smart government and smart investment.”
Greater collaboration and datasharing between office building owners and occupiers will be needed to achieve the country’s net zero goals, according a report by University College London for the British Council for Offices (BCO) outlining measures required.
Achieving net zero carbon emissions and managing the current energy crisis are focusing minds and investment on improving energy efficiency. Yet improving the energy performance of offices is challenging, particularly as 50% of the office building stock in the UK is tenanted – meaning there is little consistency even within single buildings as to how workspaces are designed and used. Only 12% of building professionals and office occupiers consulted for the BCO report believe that operational carbon targets are currently being achieved by those involved in designing and developing office buildings.
For the office sector to move from ambition to tangible action, there is an urgent need for robust benchmarks and verifiable data, as well as government requirements and incentives to support businesses’ ESG objectives and facilitate the transition to net zero. Energy use measurement
The report calls for tailoring lease agreements to promote lower energy use and carbon emissions, known as ‘green leases’, as a potential solution to reaching net zero targets.
Currently, it is difficult for occupiers to measure carbon emissions accurately because targets for energy use intensity do not differentiate between different types of offices, and dysfunctional metering strategies do not allow for a breakdown of energy use between communal and occupier areas.
BEST PRACTICE
SOME OF THE MEASURES THE REPORT RECOMMENDS:
Improving performance
The report states that retrofit is “an increasingly popular approach among developers but the works involved make it highly disruptive to any existing occupiers of a building”. But it says “careful phasing and use of prefabricated components can mitigate disruption on site – and contribute to a circular economy if designed for disassembly in the future”.
It is vital, the report says, to assess carbon emissions associated with the complete life cycle of a building to strike a balance between operational carbon and embodied carbon when refurbishing buildings: “a clearly defined division of funding responsibility for net ●Greener and longer zero improvements is also leases, with office occupiers having more say over refurbishments; needed to avoid any doubt, or dispute, between building ●Greater collaboration owners and occupiers”. and data sharing between building owners and Ending wasteful practicesoccupiers; ●Sub-metering and the The report highlights an use of sensors to measure issue that needs to be solved: exactly where energy is ‘Category A’ interior fit-outs used; and (lighting and basic finishes ●Use of prefabricated, reused and recycled materials and furniture. such as flooring) being installed by the building owner and discarded by the incoming occupier in favour of their own bespoke fit-out. Most office spaces would benefit from ‘Cat A+’ (plug-and-play) fit-outs for shorter and more flexible tenancies. Prioritising locally sourced materials with lower embodied carbon and using recycled, reused and further recyclable furniture can also support more environmentally friendly fit-outs. Report author Dr Esfandiar Burman, associate professor at UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment, said: “This report shows that greater energy and carbon accountability and more effective ESG frameworks can be achieved through greater collaboration between building owners and occupiers, along with data sharing and greater transparency.” Richard Kauntze, chief executive of the BCO, said: “There is a clear desire from those involved in creating and occupying workspace to hit ambitious targets, but we need to see evidence of innovation and improvement which demonstrate meaningful progress.”
SUSTAINABILITY
