Paul Morrell’s Innovation and Growth Team has released its final report on UK construction’s low carbon transition for the government to consider, with recommendations to include ‘green leases’, greater use of building information modelling and standardised solutions for housing retrofit, among some of the measures UK construction needs to adopt to meet the low carbon agenda.
These are among the recommendations from the Innovation and Growth Team (IGT) led by Paul Morrell, commissioned by the government.
The IGT’s final report, published by BIS, highlights four themes that government and industry need to engage on to rise to the carbon challenge:
- The potential size of the market: meeting the UK’s commitment to reducing carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions will affect every aspect of the built environment. The scale of the necessary change is considerable but there is much that could be done now, particularly with the existing building stock.
- Opportunities for SMEs: transforming the built environment to low carbon could provide the industry with a 40 year programme of work and act as a springboard to growth for more than 200,000 small businesses in the sector.
- The wider green economy benefits: the green economy represents an area of substantial potential growth for the UK. Creating a low carbon construction industry would develop skills and expertise that would be of great value to other sectors.
- Stimulating demand: there would be little point in developing the necessary capacity and skills if the demand for low carbon was not there. Government and industry need to work closely together to identify the best ways to stimulate the market for low carbon and energy efficiency measures.
Key recommendations
· Treasury should introduce into Green Book a requirement to conduct a whole-life carbon appraisal and this should be factored into feasibility studies on the basis of a realistic price for carbon.
· Industry should agree with government a standard method of measuring embodied carbon for use as a design tool, and for the purposes of scheme appraisal.
· Government and industry should routinely embed the principles of ‘soft landings’ into their contracts and processes, so that a building is not regarded as complete until it performs in accordance with its design criteria.
· Industry should investigate the scope for setting up a construction-specific accreditation scheme for companies committed to improving their environmental credentials.
· For housing, government should publish a working nationwide definition of zero carbon and allowable solutions for new homes that takes full account of the real cost of delivery.
· Industry should develop standardised solutions for refurbishment of existing housing stock, covering the key processes that will be needed.
· Industry should, with insurance providers, investigate an assurance and insurance package that meets the needs of consumers in housing.
· Government should review the application of the Building Regulations to refurbishment and tenant fit-out, with a view to introducing more rigorous requirements for non-domestic buildings.
· Government should support research into the level of non-compliance associated with the EPBD and Part L of the Building Regulations, and the impact of this non-compliance on carbon emissions; to review compliance mechanisms to ensure greatest impact at lowest cost to business; and to amend the EPBD and Part L compliance mechanisms accordingly.
· Government should institute a programme of long term monitoring to review the practical outcomes associated with the EPBD and Part L, to inform future revisions.
· Government should introduce minimum standards for existing buildings by mandating that all non-domestic buildings should have an EPC rating of F or better by 2020.
· Government should mandate the use of ‘green leases’ for buildings occupied by the public sector.
· Government should mandate the use of Building Information Modelling for central government projects with a value greater than £50 million.
· Industry should develop a comparator tool that allows companies to accurately assess the lifecycle cost of different methods of construction, and the levels of risk implicit in that assessment.
· Industry should explore the potential for accreditation schemes, such as those operated by BSI and Lloyd’s Register, to be adopted more widely
· Government should commission a review of benchmarks used to calculate DEC ratings to ensure they are consistent and robust, and that they effectively differentiate on energy performance for buildings of different types; and that the process should be simplified to the greatest practical degree.
· The industry should agree and implement indoor air quality standards to include indoor air quality plans, and enforceable targets for a maximum allowable concentration of toxic contaminants and emissions in interior environments for buildings with sealed envelopes.
The report will now be considered by government and it will respond next year.
BIS Article: LINK
Building 4 Change: LINK
Search Planning Resource: LINK
