This supplement is an independent publication from Raconteur Media September 22 2009
bUILdInG FOr The FUTUre
Aderived fro
lmost half the 532 million tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmos-phre from the UK in 2008 Aderived from buildings. Our homes ac-counted for some 27 per cent of all na-tional emissions. The offices, factories, distribution depots, schools and stores, in which we work, learn and shop, were responsible for a further 18 per cent.Though the UK is crowded, built-up and located in northern climes, this is in no way exceptional. Around the world, buildings account for almost half of total CO2 emissions. So for all the fuss about cars and composting, any determined at-tempt to curb climate change must really begin where we live, and where we work.The fearful price paid by the cli-mate for our daily round is the legacy of decades of carefree construction in which the consequences of energy inefficiency were counted only when utility bills hit the doormat. As Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC), says: “People don’t get up in the morn-ing and decide to contribute to climate change or do things that will damage the quality of life of other people.”But that is what we do. Our ineffi-cient household boilers fill our homes with heat that merely leaches into the atmosphere though poorly-insulated walls, lofts and windows or blows out under ill-fitting doors.At work, industrial-scale systems heat or cool air and pump it round complex buildings, struggling to cope with too much sunlight or too little, consuming vast amounts of energy as they battle the weather outside.The Way aheadIt does not have to be this way. Studies of commercial buildings across the UK suggest many use 300, 400 even 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per square metre of floor space each year. Yet in a low-carbon showcase office build-ing for its staff in Bristol, completed in June, international engineering con-sultancy Atkins has shown that smart design can cut operational energy con-sumption by more than 60 per cent.This is not a one-off. Rab Bennetts, ofarchitects Bennetts Associates, says: “Ifyou follow a series of simple steps with a commercial office building, you can get emissions down by 50, 60 or even 80 per cent. We have shown on a number ofbuildings that we can do that.”In the meantime, refurbishing Victo-rian homes with modern insulation ma-terials, double-glazing and condensing boilers can achieve a comparable trans-formation in their energy consumption, improving comfort into the bargain.The environmental impact of our homes is enormous. A report pub-royal exclusive The Prince of Wales on improvements in housing design, cutting carbon cost and building sustainable communities. page 3lished by property consultants and agents GVA Grimley this summer concluded that the average home in Cardiff and Leeds emits more than 5.8 tonnes of carbon a year, while in Lon-don the figure topped 5.4 tonnes.“Most existing buildings have been designed without sustainability in mind,” says UK-GBC’s Paul King. And green icons blind us to our eco-logical insouciance.“When people think of green buildings, they think of wind tur-bines on the roof and solar panels,” says Mr King. “But fundamentally, what we are talking about is improv-ing our ridiculously leaky buildings that spill out all the energy we pour into them.”Green PaybackWhat can be done? For a start, we can design and construct buildings differ-ently. Many industry experts say low-carbon buildings need cost little more than the energy-leaky buildings we so often construct today. The payback, for building operators, as well as our climate, would be enormous.But since only one per cent of the UK building stock is renewed every year, that alone would deliver benefits only slowly.We can also overhaul the buildings already in use today. A €15-million international study for the World Busi-ness Council for Sustainable Develop-ment, Energy Efficiency in Buildings, published this spring, concluded that The future’s green High-street retail giants are going green as coporations show social responsibility. But will it pay off?page 10with oil at US$60 a barrel – that is, be-low recent prices: “$150 billion annual-ly would reduce related energy use and corresponding carbon footprints in the range of 40 per cent, with five-year dis-counted paybacks for the owners.”If owners accepted a 10-year payback on some of their investment and spent $300 billion a year on making buildings more efficient, carbon output would be halved, the report found. But spending more than that would not be viable with oil at $60 a barrel. Yet despite an impres-sive return on investment, many buyers and owners, in the UK as elsewhere, of-ten seem reluctant to upgrade existing buildings or buy better new ones.continued on page threeWellbeing The UK Green Building Council’s Paul King on the need for sustainable building to improve quality of life. We won’t leave a dirty big footprint
in your beautiful new building
ProLogis is building carbon neutral warehouses - so our occupiers don’t inherit a big carbon footprint when they move in.High-carbon buildings are
planet’s biggest threat
If we are really going to confront climate change, buildings are our biggest problem, says Ross Tiemanpage 15