What is the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard?
A pilot has launched for the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. Doug Drewniak tells us more...
With the world's average surface temperature edging towards being 1.5°C warmer than pre-industrial levels, reducing the carbon emitted by the built environment is critical. As an industry, we have sorely lacked a consistent approach to what constitutes a net-zero carbon building. That is until now…
Earlier today, a pilot launched for the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard (the Standard).
Experts from organisations across the built environment have come together to create the Standard; over 4,000 buildings have provided data and over 1,000 organisations were consulted.
Doug Drewniak and Francesca Wilkinson from Willmott Dixon’s sustainability and building performance team have been involved in creating the Standard since 2022. Below, Doug gives us an overview of why the Standard was created, what it will contain, and what it could mean for projects in the future.
Why is the Standard being created?
The construction industry has legislation, regulations and standards that guide how buildings are built. Until now, an area that has been sorely lacking this guidance is around net-zero carbon.
Whilst voluntary, the Standard will provide the built environment with much-needed clarity and a consistent approach to delivering net-zero carbon buildings. It will also set out net-zero requirements (operational and embodied carbon) for all major building types, based on a 1.5°C trajectory.
How was the Standard created?
The founder members behind the Standard include: Better Buildings Partnership, BRE, The Carbon Trust, CIBSE, LETI, RIBA, RICS, IStructE and UK Green Building Council (UKGBC).
To gain a broad range of insights and opinions, experts from across the wider industry were invited to get involved. I joined the task group focusing on operational energy and my colleague, Francesca, has been part of the group focusing on reporting, disclosure and verification.
Through our involvement as a contractor, we have ensured that real-world examples and practical experience have been incorporated into the Standard, which will ensure it’s realistic and deliverable.
What will the Standard entail?
As with any standard, there will be targets and limits that buildings must meet – across both operational and embodied carbon. The Standard doesn’t specify any required routes for achieving the performance criteria, but implementing certain building methods or standards, such as modern methods of construction (MMC) for embodied carbon or Passivhaus for operational carbon, could make it easier to meet the targets and limits.
How will this impact on future projects?
Until the pilot concludes and the Standard is finalised we won’t have all of the answers. However, the pilot phase does provide us with the opportunity to examine the general principles against real projects. At Willmott Dixon we are in the process of identifying projects (both completed and currently in preconstruction) that we can use to test drive the Standard. We will gather feedback both internally and externally via the Standard’s working groups and technical steering group, and we will share these findings to help shape the Standard further.
The Standard is voluntary, so, to begin with, it won’t impact every project. However, given the broad industry backing, the technical clarity and the absolute need to act, I can envisage rapid uptake - especially on public sector projects given that over 300 UK councils have declared a climate emergency. So, if you want to create low-carbon, energy-efficient buildings, this Standard is best-practice and what you should consider implementing on projects.
The Standard attempts to marry top down and bottom up targets, ensuring that the resulting decarbonisation trajectories align with UK carbon budgets set out by the Government and other expert organisations (such as LETI). Adopting the Standard will ensure that your buildings are future-proofed against a changing climate and that they are ready for the energy transition, which will remove the need to spend money on retrofitting later.
How will this Standard help to verify net-zero buildings?
While some of the detail is still being finalised, the Standard is very much geared towards ‘as built’ performance. The performance criteria set out in the Standard requires annual in-use verification through meter readings.
To make this a straight-forward process, having the right performance monitoring in place will be important. Implementing tools such as our Energy SynergyTM offering will help to make demonstrating compliance with this requirement quick and easy.
This new Standard is an important step-change for our industry as, until now, there hasn’t been a consistent approach to what constitutes a net-zero carbon building. Soon we’ll have this clarity for both operational and embodied carbon, as well as verifying building performance.
If I am commissioning a new building, do I need to do anything?
While you can (unofficially) test the new Standard on existing projects as much as you like, if you have a net-zero carbon scheme in the pipeline (and it’s at the right stage) you can choose to put it forward to be part of the official pilot. The ‘Pilot Testing Programme’ hasn’t opened for applications yet, but you can register your interest on the UK Net Zero Building Standard website.
If you choose to adopt the Standard once it’s released (which I highly recommend doing), it’s important to ensure internal and external stakeholders understand your plans as soon as possible - it could have a significant impact on the building’s design.
Once the project is in design, build and handover stages, sustainability experts working on your project will be responsible for making sure the design meets the Standard’s criteria (on paper and in reality).
More information
You can read the full standard here. Also, look out for our next blog where Francesca Wilkinson will give an overview of the key elements from the Standard.
If you’d like to discuss your own journey to net-zero, click here to get in touch with one of the team.
Find out more about some of our net-zero projects below: