Mitigation & Relief

Posted in: Mitigation & Relief, Economics
The UK Policy on Sustainable Buildings
By Andrew Palmer
Feb 24, 2008 - 7:30:04 AM

The UK Government has a poor track record when it comes to enforcing sustainable building practices, but it appears that this is likely to change, The Independent on Sunday (London) stated on the 24 February 2008, that "every new building put up in Britain will have to be zero carbon, emitting none of the pollution that is the main cause of global warming."  The UK Government made a commitment in 2007 to make all new housing zero carbon by 2016, but it appears that this undertaking will be extended to commercial, industry, retail, offices and all non-domestic buildings.

Buildings are the UK's largest source of CO2 emissions, responsible for nearly half of all  CO2 pollution. Only a few hundred homes, and only a handful of other buildings, are currently zero carbon.

The new policy is a response to The Report on Carbon Reductions in New Non-Domestic Buildings produced by the UK Green Building Council and published by the UK Government Department for Communities and Local Government (2007).

The Report notes that, "In order to achieve zero carbon new non-domestic buildings in the UK there is a need, and from some developers, even a desire, for a policy change. [The] ... economic drivers are currently not in place to drive the building stock towards zero carbon. There are a number of existing policy tools that could be adapted in order to drive the agenda forward..."

The authors conclude that their analysis "suggests that achieving zero carbon for new non-domestic buildings will increase the capital cost of construction by between 5 per cent and 30 per cent. At current prices and rates of construction of non-domestic buildings, that implies an approximate incremental capital cost of between £2 billion to £12 billion a year." They add, "The Stern Report estimated that the annual cost of stabilising the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at an acceptable level would be around 1 per cent of global GDP if action was taken promptly, but higher if action was delayed. One per cent of the UK’s current GDP is £13.5 billion. However, buildings contribute about 40 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, of which about two-thirds come from domestic buildings and one third from non-domestic buildings."

There are a number of technical issues that need to be dealt with, for example, "The most significant development in building science over the last thirty years has been the development of computer models to assess the energy and environmental performance of buildings. These models are now regularly used to assess the potential impact of energyefficient technologies in the design and refurbishment of buildings. However, when buildings are refurbished or new buildings built, they can use up to twice the theoretical energy performance. This is a serious problem which can significantly impact on the potential for the world to achieve carbon reduction targets. this problem needs to be addressed at a national level. The causes of the discrepancy between model predictions and actual building energy use must first be understood, then incorporated into model structure, input data requirements and the ways models are used. These methodological improvements need to be based on sufficient empirical data rather than further modelling."  In addition there needs to be changes in policy which drive non-domestic building down the zero carbon route.

The Report recommends that a target for zero carbon new non-domestic buildings be set, they say, "a deadline of 2020 could be adopted." According to The Independent on Sunday the UK Government will accept this recommendation.

The Independent on Sunday notes that until now the UK, "had no target for the non-domestic buildings that contribute another 18 per cent of the country's carbon dioxide emissions, lagging behind France – where all new buildings must produce more energy than they consume by 2020 – and even the US, where new commercial ones must be "zero net energy" by 2030."