What does the Government need to do to support the built environment in lowering their carbon emissions?

Since COP26 in November 2021, there has been a real focus on sustainability and lowering carbon emissions within the built environment. This accounts for around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint according to the UK Green Building Council.

When talking about measuring carbon emissions in buildings, it is split into the following categories: 

• Operational carbon - This is associated with the energy required to run a building, including heating, lighting, cooling, ventilation, etc. 
• Embodied carbon - This is associated with all non-operational aspects of a building, such as the construction, manufacture, repair, maintenance and refurbishment processes.  

In order to fully reduce the carbon impact from the built environment, the Government will need to find ways to promote change in these two areas to actively reduce carbon, as opposed to offsetting. In this article, discover what the Government should implement to increase carbon efficiency in buildings as well as the opportunities that are emerging in green jobs and green technology in the coming years. 

Carbon emissions within buildings 

The UK’s current target is to achieve net zero by 2050, which some would argue will be too late to prevent the devastating impacts of climate change. The Government has further announced that the public sector, including offices and hospitals, is working to the target of delivering 78% reductions by 2035.  

Attention has also turned to demolition and construction, with many industry experts stating that retrofitting is a far more eco-friendly alternative. Recently, Marks and Spencer have received criticism regarding the planned demolition of their 90-year-old flagship store in London’s Oxford Circus; with their justification being that the new building would offset its impact within 16 years. A recent research briefing from the UK Parliament’s website suggests that the Government should incentivise retrofitting by making VAT and refurbishing more cost-effective when compared to demolition and new builds.  

However, more needs to be done to lower carbon emissions from buildings and this will come from new regulations in how they should operate.

The UK needs metrics for the built environment to ensure that spaces are working to their optimum performance. This is not just in terms of operational emissions, but for embodied emissions such as the choice in materials used, as well as the transportation and construction processes. 

In Australia, the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), provides a simple and efficient way to score buildings, which can lead to carbon reductions. We welcome the UK version of this initiative, which was launched in November 2020,  and the added impetus that it will give to making UK buildings more sustainable and energy-efficient. Demand Logic helps you get straight to the equipment in your building that is wasting energy and can show you how to improve your building’s operational performance and your NABERS rating.

More green jobs; more green technology 

We believe that things are changing, however, whether the Government is doing enough to lower the UK's carbon impact is down to interpretation. In May 2021, the UK Government said that there would be a £166 million cash injection into green technology, creating up to 60,000 jobs across the UK. In addition, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy further outlined plans of £116m to help the UK's green-tech firms to finance carbon capture projects as well as using tech to increase energy efficiency in homes and buildings according to ComputerWeekly. 

The Government pledged that green job creation would be a part of the “green industrial revolution,” and in November 2020 they announced that £4bn would be spent to create two million green jobs by 2030. Rapid change needs to happen for this to become an actuality, as a recent BBC report suggested that UK jobs linked to the green economy accounted for 1.2% of all advertised roles in the year to July 2021 according to PwC. 

Ultimately, whilst these policies will help to fund the development of green technology and jobs, the Government needs to prioritise green education in schools to kickstart this change. By creating a talent pipeline, the sector will be able to access highly skilled individuals to populate these areas of work. 

In a welcome move, the Department of Education published its draft Sustainability and Climate Change strategy, during the latter part of COP26. This strategy sets out ambitious plans for education policy in the UK and takes on recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change and the Green Jobs Taskforce report. It acknowledges the responsibilities that the education sector faces to ensure that young people are adequately prepared to face the challenges and opportunities in the future, specifically with regard to climate change, and importantly the need to arm them with the relevant knowledge and skills. The final version is due to be published in April 2022.

Achieving your goals with Building Analytics

This year, many organisations will know that working towards their climate goals should be top of the agenda, but few will know how to measure their carbon impact or how to lower it. However, for those looking to reduce the carbon emissions within their properties, the first key is to understand how their current property portfolio is operating. Much of this can be completed with the help of proptech to provide actionable insight into properties. 

Here at Demand Logic, our Building Analytics solution helps Property Stakeholders and teams to save energy, maximise comfort and cut maintenance costs from their properties. 2021 was a difficult year for many, however, we managed to help more organisations take steps towards their net zero journeys, including Catella APAM, Mace, Hines and Avison Young, Legal & General Real Assets and Grosvenor Group among others. 

In November 2021, Mike Darby, CEO of Demand Logic spoke with a class of young people and Government experts, including Secretary of State for Education The Rt Hon Nadhim Zahawi at the first-ever GenZero classroom in Glasgow as part of COP26. The event, organised by the Department for Education, allowed Mike to share his journey of co-founding Demand Logic, explaining the importance of green technology, whilst also discussing how to link innovation with climate change to pursue a career in sustainability. 

Now that a new year has begun, we are looking to support more organisations to achieve their sustainability targets and create a better world for all. If you would like to get in touch with a member of the Demand Logic team, call +44 20 7193 4212 or email info@demandlogic.co.uk.