First UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is a Step Closer

THE NET ZERO Carbon Buildings Standard has taken its next step to decarbonising the UK built environment with the appointment of a chairperson to its governance board.

Earlier this year a cross-industry partnership of organisations joined forces to develop the UK’s first standard for identifying and verifying buildings as net zero carbon.

The ‘Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard’ will set out a single, agreed set of performance targets for different asset types. It will also enable buildings claiming net zero carbon to demonstrate that they meet science-based decarbonisation trajectories.

The new chairperson, David Partridge, from property developer Related Argent, will head the initiative’s Governance Board that will oversee the development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of the Standard.

David Partridge said: “If the built environment industry is to seriously address its impact on climate change, a universally adopted Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is absolutely essential.

“This initiative is already backed by all of the leading professional institutions in the sector and my initial main task is to extend its reach to all of the bodies that represent developers, owners, investors, financiers and managers of the built environment as well as the contractors and their supply chain, who build it.

“Together we will then have a single industry backed NZCB Standard which can be utilised across the sector and used to approach government enabling them to measure, verify and account for the built environment’s achievement of net zero targets. The impact this would have on ensuring that the UK achieves its 2035 and 2050 commitments will be game-changing.”

Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard

The Standard will cover both new and existing buildings and will set out performance targets/limits addressing operational energy and embodied carbon emissions to align with the UK’s 2050 net zero target and what is necessary to deliver a built environment that decarbonises in line with a 1.5°C pathway. It will also cover the procurement of renewable energy and the treatment of residual emissions, including carbon offsetting.

The Standard will be critically relevant for any organisation seeking to fund, procure, design, construct, specify, or occupy a net zero carbon building and anyone wanting to demonstrate that their building is net zero-aligned with an industry-agreed standard.

Task Groups

Over the summer months the Net Zero Carbon Buildings initiative’s Technical Steering Group has been assembling a range of Task Groups made up of industry stakeholders.

Task Group representatives will be announced in the coming weeks, with work commencing soon. Various elements of the Standard will be consulted on by industry with initial outputs expected in 2023.

The Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard is being developed by an industry partnership of: BBP, BRE, the Carbon Trust, CIBSE, IStructE, LETI, RIBA, RICS, and UKGBC.

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