Green building revolution edges nearer as government takes a step towards zero carbon

The phrase ‘green new deal’, along with variants such as ‘green industrial revolution’, has become pleasingly common in the last few years. In the US, UK and EU, policies such as “generating 100 percent of energy from renewables by 2050, improving drinking water infrastructure, guaranteeing a “green” job to every adult” are now on the table. While it is parties broadly of the left who began the conversation, it’s now taking place across the political spectrum.

Into this mix come the green building revolution and the open consultation on the Future Buildings Standard – both announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government on the 19th of January. Let’s begin with the green building revolution, which is the UK government’s response to the Future Homes consultation begun in 2019. While it is a specific response to that, its broad aims cover both domestic and non-domestic buildings:

• All new buildings to be constructed to be highly energy efficient

• Building work in existing buildings must meet new standards

• Measures to tackle overheating in new residential buildings

The proposal is for all homes to be highly energy efficient, with low carbon heating and be zero carbon ready by 2025. New homes will be expected to produce 75-80% lower carbon emissions than the average home does now. As a first step towards this target, from this year new homes will be expected to hit a target of 31% lower carbon emissions.

Existing homes aren’t exempt; extensions, repairs and part replacement will be subject to higher standards. Housing Minister the Rt Hon Christopher Pincher MP said this:

“Improving the energy performance of buildings is vital to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and protecting the environment for future generations to come. [The plans] will help deliver greener homes and buildings, as well as reducing energy bills for hard-working families and businesses.”

House with foliage. Photo: Ante Hamersmit on Pixabay

Of course, there is a bigger picture here: the government’s overarching goal of tackling climate change. With that in mind, a consultation on higher performance targets for non-domestic buildings has also been announced, with a view to getting them zero carbon ready by 2025. The context is heating and powering buildings currently accounting for 40% of the UK’s total energy usage. This means that tackling this sector successfully can have a major impact on fighting climate change.

The proposal has met with positive feedback, though there are parties who consider the proposals to be not moving swiftly enough. To quote Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive at the UK Green Building Council, and a key player:

“We are pleased to see confirmation that the Future Homes Standard will mean new homes will have carbon dioxide emissions 75-80% lower than those built to current Building Regulations – though it’s regrettable that the Standard won’t be implemented till 2025, despite it being widely trailed that it would be brought forward to 2023.”

What of the Future Buildings Standard?  It is a consultation on changes to Part L, which regulates heating, lighting and hot water energy use in buildings and Part F, which regulates ventilation, of the Building Regulations for non-domestic buildings and dwellings; also covered is overheating in new residential buildings. It closes on April 13th and has been a long time coming, as Building.co.uk argues:

“after an eight-year hiatus, building energy regulations have finally started to catch up with the low and zero-carbon aspirations of industry clients and public bodies.”

Of course, it’s quite normal for campaigning groups to be in the vanguard of change, but the situation here is one in which various other stakeholders – for example, commercial developers and the Greater London Authority, which has required 35% better than Part L for the last 8 years – have also been ahead of the curve, so the government’s actions in catching up to that are to be welcomed. Part L has not been properly amended since 2013, with a planned radical update in 2016 being shelved in favour of very minor changes.

The new proposals will bring non-domestic buildings into line with the Future Homes Standard that has been responded to simultaneously. There is a difference: the new proposals for non-domestic buildings are focused on 2021, whereas the domestic proposals take a 5-year view. There is a brace of carbon-reduction options:  22% (option 1) and 27% (option 2), with the government favouring the latter, which requires fabric improvements as well as more efficient building services.

The Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) eight sustainable outcomes will also play a very important role, as they will provide the design principles that will enable the sector to meet the outcomes required. Here they are:

• Net zero operational carbon

• Net zero embodied carbon

• Sustainable water cycle

• Sustainable connectivity and transport

• Sustainable land use and bio-diversity

• Good health and wellbeing

• Sustainable communities and social value

• Sustainable life cycle cost

In June 2019 the UK government committed to be net zero carbon by 2050, and the RIBA, along with much of the construction industry, is of the view that to meet this target new projects and refurbishments must be designed and constructed that will not require retrofitting again before 2050, with a deadline of 2030 being set to achieve this – hence its 2020 Plan of Work, which was designed to organise the process of briefing, designing, delivering, maintaining, operating and using a building into eight stages that work towards the sustainable outcomes.

In this context, it is worth quoting another voice expressing concerns. Alan Fogarty, sustainability partner at multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, Cundall, said:

“While this is great news for the energy performance of new build homes and businesses, the fact remains that 90% of building stock that will be in use in 2050, has already been built to standards that do not comply with net zero carbon standards. The real challenge here is retrofitting the thousands of homes and businesses in our existing building stock. In order to meet the government’s ambitious 2050 net zero carbon targets, we need to be retrofitting 20,000 homes per week to meet net zero carbon energy standards, and at the moment there is no standard in place for how that should be achieved.”

Obviously, that is not happening at present. However, there does seem to be greater alignment between government and the key stakeholders in the sector. But as with all proposals and consultations, only time will tell if this revolution has the desired effect.