MEP – mechanical, electrical, plumbing – are three letters that can induce glazed eyes. This should not be the case. After all, building services are the backbone of development, and are at the forefront of the drive towards sustainability in the property sector.
The green agenda and the property industry as a whole have changed drastically over the past decade. Regulations have evolved – and continue to evolve – with the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard (MEES) and Part L of the Building Regulations introducing further requirements for landlords, all with a view to ingraining sustainability in the sector.
Background
To understand the continuing evolution of the regulatory requirements, and how these might develop in the future, it is important to look at the past.
There has been a concerted effort at a governmental level to promote sustainability, with an overall target of zero carbon. In 2006, the then Labour government announced its commitment to “zero-carbon homes”; in 2007 the European Union introduced its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) for energy performance certificates (EPCs); and in 2008 there was a further commitment to “non-domestic zero carbon”.
Where policy goes, toolkits and methods must follow. However, many in the industry were left pondering what zero carbon actually is and how it can be achieved. These are common questions – met with no real answers. The construction sector simply got on with it. As a result, bodies and institutes were founded, and the Zero Carbon Hub released a roadmap of how zero carbon could be achieved.
Separate to this, in the power generation sector, the government continued with its decarbonisation plan, seeking to improve renewable energy contribution, with investment in wind, biomass and solar technologies at scale.
How successful has it been?
What was the problem here? Both regulations and building toolkits (SAP, SBEM) were failing to keep up with developments in the generation sector. For years, gas had been the tried and tested friend of the property industry, with electricity having the largest carbon intensity when applied to its building services strategy. Things have changed, however.
Over the past 12 years, thanks to innovations in renewable energy, along with the reduction in coal-fired power stations, the sector succeeded in reducing the carbon weighting of electricity at generation level.
Fast forward to 2019, and much has been learnt, with a projected landscape shift, on the premise of the consultation on Building Regulations 2019/2020 standards.
This proposed amendment to carbon weighting presents a fundamental step change, mirrored in the dichotomy between national and local regulations: the latter promoting gas, with the former attempting to move away from the fuel.
Data and the future
Suddenly, there is a need to look at how we innovate and shape how we service buildings. Electricity is being proposed as equal to gas in its carbon weighting, giving more options for alternative technical solutions. Fundamentally, however, the basis of the toolkits that look at how buildings operate are based on data gathered over the past 20-30 years; workplace tech and big data have yet to be firmly established and the benefits reaped.
There is now significantly more data on which to base energy performance calculations – providing a detailed base for measurement. Regulations, however, are once again playing catch up.
With developments in regulation and initiatives over the past decade, dataset updates are limited, primarily down to the sheer lack of sharing. The advent of big data should be embraced: it provides an opportunity for the industry to shape its future in a more measured manner, showcasing best in class, but also what is the norm outside of this.
Gone are the days of a building operating from 7am until 6pm on a fixed seasonal temperature gauge, floor by floor. Sensors and live data feedback loops are fast becoming the norm and have caused operators to reconsider how they service their buildings.
At the same time, users demand flexibility and dynamic building operation, and want to be able to open a limited area without having to service the entire building. Operators have become more savvy about what is needed, and this has led to changing design solutions, in terms of how to componentise a building and its servicing strategy.
The practicalities
How do we translate that into building services options?
- Leases will need to become more flexible. The advent of a base build CAT A might not exist anymore – a controversial statement, but if the definition of workplace is changing, so surely should the provisions.
- Dynamic demand-led services are still in their relative infancy, the internet of things is a powerful tool, but having the capacity to ramp up and down almost immediately has been demonstrated on few projects.
- Zonal demand will become the norm, though there is a need to become smarter at design for this as more kit equals higher capital and maintenance costs and there must be a way to bring these down.
- Energy storage will become a key player in design. The capability is developing and it will soon transition to buildings. It’s already at grid level with demonstration projects being trialled across the UK, not to mention the rise of electric cars and home storage solutions.
- Innovation is coming, the balance in fuel selection being made equal, so options could suddenly be plentiful.
The property sector has seen a great deal of sustainable innovation over the past 12 years, and we can expect this to continue. Where the sector leads, regulation will surely have to follow.
Adrian Lim is associate director at JLL Project Management
