Sustainability & Construction Newsletter #31
Mitsubishi Electric Living Environmental Systems UK
Cooling, Heating, Ventilation and Controls
Welcome to the 31st edition of our Sustainability & Construction newsletter!
This month's newsletter is packed with news showcasing the increasing importance of retrofitting buildings and adopting renewable energy sources like heat pumps. See how Salford City Council slashed their carbon footprint by 70% with a heat pump system, and learn why Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) urges the UK government to prioritise retrofit projects in 2024.
From UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)'s partnership with Futurebuild to the launch of the UK's first cross-industry Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, there's a clear momentum towards achieving Net Zero carbon buildings. Find out about the Climate Stripes image which highlights the urgency of action, analyse UKGBC's report on the built environment's progress, and dive into insights on managing embodied carbon emissions.
We're also delighted to feature Jake Timothy‑Dorward, Senior Consultant for QODA Consulting, in our guest section, 'Construction Voices'. Jake shares insights into how various stakeholders in the construction industry need to collaborate and adapt to meet the new Whole Life Carbon and Circular Economy requirements.
Whether you're involved in building design, construction, or simply interested in sustainable solutions, this newsletter provides valuable insights and resources.
Latest Mitsubishi Electric News:
Salford City Council has recently upgraded the heating at its Civic Centre and is now benefiting from a renewable heat pump system that has helped reduce the building’s carbon footprint by 70 tonnes, or around 54%.
UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has announced it’s partnership with Futurebuild 2024, with headline sponsorship from UKGBC member, Mitsubishi Electric UK.
As we start a New Year that will see elections in at least 64 countries around the world, one thing that we can be certain of, is that 2024 will be a year full of uncertainty.
When repairing and refurbishing the UK’s school and college buildings, we must put heating, hot water and ventilation systems high on the list. These services support the wellbeing and productivity of students and teachers and can also improve energy efficiency while cutting carbon emissions.
Latest Industry news
Webinar launching UKGBC’s latest report exploring potential cost & carbon impacts of different retrofit measures for existing offices.
Chris Skidmore, who resigned Tory whip last week, predicts former party will lose election partly because of its stance on Net Zero. We recently had the opportunity to speak to Chris about the importance of Net Zero policy on our podcast. You can listen to it here.
UK's first cross- industry Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard that brings together Net Zero Carbon requirements for all major building types, based on a 1.5°C trajectory. Leading organisations BBP, BRE, the Carbon Trust, CIBSE, IStructE, LETI, RIBA, RICS, and UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) have joined forces to champion this initiative. Their latest quarterly update is now available and can be downloaded from the link above.
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The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has called on the UK government to help accelerate growth in the number of whole building retrofit projects carried out in 2024.
Global temperatures were so hot in 2023 that the latest climate stripes image needs a whole new colour to show it, its creator said. Professor Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at NCAS, University of Reading, has published the first updated climate stripes image for the globe using the latest interim data for 2023.
Government Net Zero proposals for the Future Homes and Buildings Standards gave CIBSE Members plenty to digest over the Christmas period. Alex Smith looks at the proposed changes and how they will affect the specifying of low carbon technologies.
The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)'s report on the built environment's progress towards meeting the country's Net Zero commitments reveals a significant shortfall. Despite a 13% reduction in carbon emissions between 2018 and 2022, it falls short of the required 19% reduction. The industry, a major emitter after surface transport, must now accelerate its decarbonization to meet the set trajectory. You can view the report here
Reusing components, recycling materials and boosting material efficiency will be crucial to the building sector’s Net Zero transition, a new report endorsed by the World Economic Forum reveals.
Findings jointly produced by academic experts and trade body BSRIA have set out some of the main tools to help the HVAC and construction sectors to better manage whole life emissions linked to their systems in the absence of regulation.
Construction Voices
Here we invite industry leaders to share their valuable insights and expertise on creating a sustainable built environment. This week we welcome Jake Timothy‑Dorward, Senior Consultant for QODA Consulting.
The sustainability landscape has started shifting since the initial introduction of Whole Life Carbon and Circular Economy requirements for GLA referable schemes in 2020. This has caused a top-down trickle effect as local boroughs of London have started to adopt the same standard of assessments for many of their own schemes. It is no surprise given that 20% of building emissions are related to embodied carbon of newly constructed buildings, annually. Furthermore, and especially with operational performance of buildings continuing to improve, roughly 40-70% of a building’s whole life carbon emissions can be identified with its embodied carbon footprint. There is a clear focus with the GLA and local councils to retain the existing building stock, build less, and build well. The key to success relies on many different stakeholders.
The developer has a huge opportunity to influence the project from the very beginning as the most carbon savings are achieved before a plan has actually been conceptualised. It is critical for a developer to ensure that their company is educated at board level to be carbon literate, to identify risks and opportunities that arise with relation to a building’s whole life carbon footprint, and to continue to collect and reevaluate performance. It is recommended to engage a sustainability expert in-house to develop employer’s requirements, in line with planning requirements, that must be met on each project. Early engagement with design team will help to safeguard planning requirements by identifying project specific risks and opportunities.
The design team are integral to turn employer’s and planning requirements into a feasible design. This can be broken down into several critical stages. The first element to consider is to collaborate with all principal designers at the earliest stage of the project to discuss the principles of whole life carbon and to explore opportunities to reduce carbon emissions from the offset. Conversations should centre around existing building retention, building form, building structure, waste reduction, procurement, and designing for end-of-life. Once a strategy has been agreed, the main task at this stage is to effectively generate an accurate inventory of materials, with a bespoke and effectively communicated plan in place for each material throughout its useful life. It is critical at this stage that all requirements related to whole life carbon are properly specified including location of materials, recycled content of materials, reused materials, availability of EPD, construction methods, etc.
Early engagement with supply chain plays a huge role in delivering a project in line with the principles of whole life carbon. Designers should be reaching out to manufacturers to inform on requirements and request how far their products can be pushed. Increased demand will provide manufacturers with the confidence to re-strategize and deliver products that embody low-carbon technology. This enables more ambitious targets to be set at planning stage which will help buildings to push for aspirational whole life carbon benchmarks.
The contractor faces the challenge of piecing all of the design work together and delivering it in actuality. Procurement is one of the most pivotal items to get right at this stage, and technical submissions must be clear and robusdt in terms of whole life carbon requirements. One of the roles that has evolved most is the role of the quantity surveyor, who now needs to be literate in carbon as well as currency, and able to identify products that are most suitable to low-carbon construction. Furthermore, training should be provided regularly to site operatives to illustrate the best methods for reducing waste on site, as well as ensuring that materials are easily reachable and disassembled.
The supply chain faces the greatest challenge of developing products that are fit for purpose. Whilst contending with many other items such as fire safety of products, manufacturers have a responsibility to invest in innovating their processes to produce assets that are low-carbon, resourceful, designed for longevity and end of life. The most important piece of the jigsaw is to have verifiable products with explicit metrics of performance that can inform. This is an area of paramount importance with services, where data is currently extremely limited. TM65 was released in 2021 to act as methodology to measure whole life carbon impact of services without EPDs. The document highlights that a heating system alone can account for up to 25% of a building’s whole life carbon footprint. Manufacturers in the services sector have been provided the intricate challenge of producing third party verified EPDs in line with EN15804 standards to properly inform projects about their total carbon emissions. The challenge necessitates developing technology that is compact, efficient, containing low GWP solution, operable for 25+ years, and with maximum recycled content. No easy feat! A lot of great work from supply chain has come in remarkably simple yet effective fashion. For instance, leasing products instead of selling them, and communications with design teams between CAT A and CAT B to salvage and repurpose otherwise obsolete installations. The upcoming couple of years are going to have a huge impact on the future of whole life carbon with services joining structures and façade at the forefront of whole life low-carbon design.
We hope you've found the content of this newsletter useful and relevant. In each edition, we'll focus on bringing you the latest news and topics around sustainability and construction. If there are any news articles you would like us to feature, or if you would like to be a guest contributor for Construction Voices, please get in touch with us.
Find out more about our new Sustainability and Construction team here.
The progress in retrofitting and renewable energy adoption made by Salford City Council and the push by BESA is inspiring. Exciting developments towards Net Zero carbon buildings!