Crossbank House, Oldham – a model of energy efficient retrofit
The Government in Westminster, no matter what its colour, has recognised that there is much to be done to meet the programme of carbon reduction targets set out in the 2008 Climate Change Act, culminating in a reduction in CO2eq emissions of 80% by 2050 compared with a 1990 baseline.
Interim targets include a 22% reduction in the years 2008-2012. It is interesting to note that, compared with a 1990 baseline of 777.8 MtCO2eq it has been reported that UK emissions (or ‘carbon budget’) for 2008 were 606.7, allowing for 19.3 purchased by UK companies under the EU ETS; a reduction of exactly 22% (carbon) .
Arising from the Climate Change Act the Government published its Low Carbon Industrial Strategy in 2009 and the Low Carbon Construction Innovation & Growth Team (IGT) was established under the auspices of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS) in September of that year. Its comprehensive and visionary final report was published in November 2010, setting out a strategy that strikes a tone of some urgency, whilst also taking the long view (can be downloaded from IGT). This might be considered a good start in achieving one of the objectives in the report: ie that Government set a clear strategy, vision and leadership in order to overcome barriers to low carbon construction.
Although this report has ‘construction’ in its title much of its content and a third of its recommendations deal with existing buildings and infrastructure. This is because approximately 75% of the stock that will be standing in 2050 is likely to be already built today. In the case of homes it is estimated that of the 27 million currently standing, 26 million will still be with us in 2050 with potentially a further 10 million built between now and then.
The report draws from work carried out by six working groups under the headings of Major Projects, Housing, Non-domestic buildings, Infrastructure, Cross-cutting and the 2050 Group, overseen by a Steering Group chaired by Paul Morrell, Chief Construction Advisor at BIS.
There are 65 recommendations across the headings, requiring action from both Government and industry. The following is distilled from the report, its recommendations and some of the references therein:
• A flexible and adaptive framework is required for delivery and monitoring of a programme of works resulting in a reduction of at least 80% in CO2eq across all sectors – new and existing buildings, public and private sector and infrastructure (Pathways to 2050, DECC, 2010 - Pathways
Different sectors have different lead-in times: for example decisions on power generation made today will impact on carbon emissions for the next 100 years, whilst low carbon construction products may have development periods measured in decades.
• A Major Project Review Group (MPRG) should be established which would provide approval for large projects based on an assessment of sustainability performance and legitimacy, following a similar model to that established by the soon to be abolished CABE.
• Environmental impact assessments should incorporate a mandatory statement on carbon reduction strategy and a carbon target based on an MPRG assessment.
• The cost of zero carbon homes should be no more than meeting 2010 Part L requirements.
• Government and industry should agree a standard method of measuring embodied carbon as part of a whole life carbon appraisal for use in feasibility studies and establishing a realistic price for carbon.
• Skills gaps will require an integrated approach to fill. A report produced by the NHBC, House Builders Federation, ConstructionSkills and Zero Carbon Hub has set out a long term strategy to address this (Home Building Skills 2020 - cskills)
Knowing how far adrift newly constructed buildings are from that predicted by current models used to assess Building Regs compliance (SAP and SBEM) is essential. Hence measuring carbon emissions associated with existing buildings requires a consistent and standardised approach.
• Barriers to the uptake of energy saving measures need to be overcome. For housing this could include linking carbon rating to stamp duty, Council Tax, Building Regulation approval and VAT, for example. For non-domestic buildings the situation is more complex and the report suggests solutions for overcoming barriers in Government, the supply chain and, in the case of existing buildings, owners and occupiers. The supply chain needs confidence to invest in innovation and work with others to provide a fully integrated approach to project management and delivery. Owners and occupiers need to see value in low carbon refurbishment and retrofit. Financial incentives for reducing carbon emissions include linking emissions to Stamp Duty Land Tax, levying differential business rates, reinstating and increasing Industrial Buildings Allowances for low carbon buildings and products and widening the scope of Enhanced Capital Allowances to cover not only products but whole-building solutions, such as natural ventilation and exposed structures.
• Government should set up an Existing Homes Hub on similar lines to the Zero Carbon Hub. Note that there already exists an Existing Homes Alliance (eha)supported by numerous commercial and public sector organisations and pressure groups. Their Finance working group produced a report in 2009 that compared various finance schemes that could be adopted by Government to support large scale retrofitting of existing housing stock, replacing the current Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT) and Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) funding schemes that place obligations on utility companies, but which come to an end in 2012. The Government has launched its Green Deal funding package for home owners based on the ‘pay as you save’ concept which was one of the three packages favoured in this report. The Green Deal will become available in 2012 and is likely to fund insulation, double glazing and possibly renewable technologies, based on a loan repaid from savings in energy bills and attached to the property, not the occupier. This will be supplemented by the recently introduced feed-in-tariff (FiT) for renewable electricity and the similar Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), both of which will pay householders for the energy that they generate in-house. The RHI is yet to be published in its final form following criticism during its consultation process for penalising solar hot water schemes by providing a lower investment return than for the likes of air source heat pumps and biomass boilers. The IGT report recommends that to cater for small organisations which are not covered by the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency (CRC-EE) scheme (approx 50% of emissions) a ‘pay as you save’ mechanism should be extended to cover non-domestic buildings as well as an energy efficiency obligation on energy suppliers to offer low cost measures such as BEMS and optimised controls.
• The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) came into force through regulation in April 2010 to provide a mechanism for Local Authorities to raise money from developers to fund local infrastructure projects. These funds may be used for energy projects, but also transport, flood defences, schools, hospitals, parks, green spaces and leisure centres. They differ from funds raised through planning obligations (Section 106 of Planning Act) and highways improvement (Section 278 of Highways Act) contributions in that they will be spent on general infrastructure, taking into account cumulative impacts of several developments and not subject to negotiation.
• In July 2010 the Coalition Government announced the foundation of a Community Energy Fund which will enable developers to contribute to a district energy scheme serving a community that includes their development as an ‘Allowable Solution’ within the proposed definition of zero carbon.
• Community Energy Online ceo is esource to support local authority and community groups to initiate and develop local low carbon and renewable energy projects.
• London is benefitting from the Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA) initiative with is providing funds for the £100m London Green Fund, including the Energy Efficiency Urban Development Fund (UDF) enabling investment in climate change infrastructure projects. Initially UDF will prioritise public and voluntary sector projects along with social housing.
• London is also one of the cities chosen to benefit from the Clinton Climate Initiative through the Building Energy Efficiency Programme (BEEP), currently funding energy efficient retrofits to a number of public buildings, managed by energy services companies (ESCo’s) and based on a similar pay-as-you-save model to that which will be employed for the Green Deal.
• The ability of the construction industry to deliver the necessary refurbishment programme must be assessed; based on an approach that incorporates standardized retrofit solutions, improved warranties and a ‘Strategic Retrofit Research Agenda’, with the social housing sector taking the lead.
• Schemes for improving the energy management and sustainability of existing non-residential buildings, such as the Green Building Management Toolkit and Green Leases (Better Building Partnership, 2010) and BREEAM in Use, should be more widely disseminated.
• An improved and enhanced DEC scheme should be extended to all existing non-residential buildings in advance of the July 2013 date required by the EPBD, with a worst-case carbon performance equivalent to an EPC rating of F to be achieved by 2020.
• Building Regulations Part L2B should be extended to cover more types of refurbishment and building fit-out.
• Landlords and tenants to agree on an energy management plan to accompany the DEC, including improvements identified through the energy efficiency obligation measures. The British Property Federation has developed tools to assist landlords in developing an energy statement and tenants in producing corresponding energy reviews that can be downloaded from http://www.les-ter.co.uk/page/home
• There is inefficiency and waste in many forms in the construction industry, and modernisation through techniques such as (but not limited to) value-based procurement, lean processes, building information modelling (BIM), benchmarking and continuous improvement, offsite manufacture and supply chain integration will enable project teams to deliver low carbon refurbishment and new build packages at the higher quality required and for significantly lower cost. The construction industry is strongly recommended to adopt modern methods of construction (MMC) and in particular use the resources provided by Buildoffsite http://www.buildoffsite.com/introduction.htm which can be used to download a number of publications including a guide to MMC (NHBC Foundation, 2006), specifying modular buildings (CIRIA, 2009) and an Offsite Toolkit.
• The IGT report addresses the weaknesses in the UK construction industry in managing the risk associated with innovative projects. It recommends the use of suitable tools such as Building Information Management (BIM), with Government leading the way on all projects >£50m. BIM is widely used in the US and computer-based tools are available from companies such as Autodesk. In addition tools should be developed that not only provide life cycle/present value assessment but also evaluate risk associated with innovation.
• Greater use of standards such ISO BS EN for low carbon and renewable technologies.
• The Cabinet Office Efficiency & Reform Group (ERG) to mandate a requirement for post-occupancy evaluation for Government projects.
Although the Government’s strategy for decarbonising infrastructure has been set out in the Department of Transport’s 2009 Low Carbon Transport Strategy and the Treasury/Infrastructure UK National Infrastructure Plan 2010 the IGT report stresses the importance of engagement between the infrastructure owners, policy makers and regulators and the construction industry to produce optimal carbon efficiency. The IGT report recommends that this collaboration should focus on developing models and undertaking research to achieve carbon reduction through better engineering and associated training and professional development.
The Government is expected to respond to the IGT report in April 2011. It is to be hoped that they take up the majority of the recommendations. It is difficult to see how the 2050 carbon commitment and interim targets are to be achieved without the actions recommended in this important report being implemented.
