COMMENT BSI’s Net Zero Barometer Report 2022, based on a survey of 1,000 UK senior decision makers and sustainability professionals, revealed that one in five organisations are prioritising the reduction of carbon emissions. Our experience is that they see this as competitive advantage.
While decarbonisation is not yet the top priority for a majority of organisations, the direction of travel is obvious. Some 71% of those surveyed had set a net zero target, up from 40% in 2021. Understanding what the net zero transition means in practice remains an issue, with only 21% of respondents reporting they were fully aware.
Such findings will no doubt resonate with organisations in the built environment sector which are at the forefront of this challenge. Indeed, in the UK it is estimated that the built environment contributes around 40% of the country’s total carbon footprint, of which almost half is from energy used in buildings and infrastructure that has nothing to do with their functional operation. Significant improvements need to be made in the energy efficiency of the UK’s building stock and new solutions need to be found to help decarbonise real estate.
In general, the carbon emissions associated with a building fall into two categories: operational carbon and embodied carbon. Operational carbon refers to the energy used for heating, cooling, and powering buildings, while embodied carbon refers to the carbon emitted during the whole lifecycle of a building – from construction to demolition and beyond when recycling and reusing materials.
While energy retrofits are becoming common practice and there are increasing numbers of efficient buildings, not enough is being done to minimise upfront impacts in the design and construction phases of all buildings. In its role as the national standards body, BSI oversees the development and adoption of international, regional and national, market-led consensus standards. We see standards playing a key role to help align users around best practice methods to meet net zero. BSI’s survey found that 85% of business leaders believe that embedding climate considerations into all standards will help in reaching net zero.
Applying the standard
Within the built environment, standards are a vital business tool in enabling the sector’s shift to net zero through best practice, collaboration and, crucially, reduced costs. In practice, this means direction on the use of lower-carbon products and materials, energy efficiency, alternative fuels and more sustainable methods of construction, operation, decommissioning and recycling. There are standards that will help companies make progress in their net zero transition on all these issues.
From a big-picture, sustainable cities perspective, standards such as ISO 37106/37122 give city and community leaders guidance on how to develop an open, collaborative, citizen-centric and digitally-enabled operating model that puts a vision for a sustainable future into operation. It emphasises a whole-city strategic approach to the use of smart data, smart ways of working and smart technologies. This holistic smart city strategy is crucial to gathering the right data and guiding intelligent, evidence-based decision making on how best to decarbonise and drive the net zero transition. This may mean accelerating the shift away from fossil fuel vehicles to public or carbon-free transport or reducing city-wide energy use.
One of the key priorities for architects and builders must be to reduce the embodied carbon of buildings. BS 8895 helps achieve this by providing recommendations, accepted by industry leaders and practitioners, for designing for material efficiency. It helps reduce the use of virgin material, designs out waste and encourages use of recycled or reusable materials. By establishing a more circular approach to the building, embodied carbon is reduced at lower cost and with less energy intensity.
Given that 80% of the buildings that will be in use in 2050 have already been built, reducing operational carbon through energy efficiency also has a vital role to play in the transition to net zero. PAS 2035/2030: 2019 and PAS 2038:2021 both support work towards less energy-intense buildings by promoting and defining technically robust and responsible “whole-building” domestic retrofit work. Crucially, they both work to support improved functionality, usability and durability of buildings as well as improved energy efficiency, leading to reduced fuel use and subsequent cost savings and pollution minimisation. In both cases the core strategy is to reduce energy demand, improve energy efficiency and decarbonise the building.
Seizing the opportunity
The net zero transition presents a huge challenge and at the same time a tremendous opportunity. Businesses should take a strategic view of the opportunities for growth and cost-savings that will come from their transformation to a decarbonised, sustainable organisation. There is a real competitive advantage to becoming more sustainable, and while this may appear challenging at a time of soaring energy costs, labour shortages and inflation, there is no doubt that stakeholders are demanding that business keeps its focus on net zero. Standards are the off-the-shelf solution for businesses to both tackle costs and cut carbon.
Read the BSI Barometer Report >>
Scott Steedman is director-general, standards at BSI
