The Hymn Sheet
Singing from the same sheet
In November 2022, the UK government had its 2nd reading of the Carbon Emissions (Buildings) Bill, which was a private members’ bill submitted by Conservative MP, Jerome Mayhew. The Bill would have required the whole-life carbon emissions of buildings to be reported and to set limits on embodied carbon emissions in the construction of buildings.
The bill was not taken any further, in large part because of beliefs at the time that that the industry was not fully supportive of such regulation.
We know from the work we’ve been doing since December 2022, and the hundreds of people in the industry to whom we have spoken, that there is widespread support across the industry for such regulation.
It was borne out of frustration at the government’s lack of action that Don’t Waste Buildings was founded.
In order to demonstrate to government that the industry is aligned on this vital issue, we have written the document below to show that we are all singing from the same ‘Hymn Sheet’.
You can click the button below to download a PDF of the Hymn Sheet, or continue scrolling to read its key contents.
Introduction
When we think about resources, it’s understood that things like fast fashion, single-use plastic, and food waste are an environmental disaster, damaging nature and fuelling global warming. But what about the consequences of routinely throwing away much bigger objects – such as buildings?
Almost two-thirds of all waste produced in the UK (66 million tonnes) is construction and demolition waste. (Defra statistics, March 2020.)
Demolished buildings are typically replaced with new ones, but this creates the demand for new fossil-fuel based materials such as steel, aluminium, concrete, and brick.
The emissions caused by their production, known as ‘embodied carbon’, are released into the atmosphere immediately and amount to more than 64 million tonnes of CO2 every year in Britain. (UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) ‘UKGBC Whole Life Carbon Roadmap Progress Report’ launched at COP28.)
According to the Commons Environmental Audit Committee, this is more than UK emissions from aviation and shipping combined. (EAC, Building to Net Zero, September 2022.)
What’s the issue?
Click to view larger image.
Click to view larger image.
Across the UK, we urgently need buildings of all shapes and sizes to serve many needs – providing space for uses such as retail, office, health, community, education, and especially housing. Yet, for decades, our regeneration approach has been to demolish and replace shops, offices, and housing blocks which are viewed as past their sell-by date.
While some buildings should be demolished, or partially demolished, we now know this approach not only causes noise and disruption for communities, but also it is fuelling the climate crisis because of the sizeable upfront carbon emissions caused by demolition and replacement (new build) construction.
This ‘embodied carbon’ is one of two types of emissions associated with buildings, the other being ‘operational carbon’, which results from the energy used to operate the building or its infrastructure, such as heating, hot water, cooling, ventilation, and lighting (see top image).
The staggering statistic is that 50% of lifetime GHG (CO2) emissions of buildings are expended before they are even occupied and in use (see bottom image).
Reaching Net Zero is a major challenge that is unachievable without bearing down on both these parts of our built environment’s carbon footprint. Yet progress, especially on embodied carbon, has been far too slow.
As the UK Green Building Council has reported, for buildings and infrastructure to hit its delivery pathway, or ‘roadmap’ to Net Zero, embodied carbon emissions needed to fall 17% between 2018 and 2022, yet they only fell by 4%, less than one-quarter of the amount that was needed. (UKGBC’s ‘Whole Life Carbon Roadmap Progress Report’.)
What’s the answer?
Every empty or under-utilised building presents an opportunity to tackle the climate crisis and help communities. And there are a lot of these, especially in challenged sectors such as office and retail.
The national office vacancy rate throughout the UK now stands at 7.6%, the highest in nine years (according to data from commercial real estate information company CoStar), while more than 10,000 shops closed in 2023 alone (according to the Centre for Retail Research), yet we have a national shortage of housing.
What if we viewed these numbers not just as a problem but as a potential opportunity for regeneration and possible change to better use that would attract considerable support from the general public?
In most cases, threatened buildings can be restored, repurposed, revitalised. They can be adapted for new uses and, where they are unpopular or viewed as ugly, they can be made attractive, helping to restore vitality to our High Streets and local neighbourhoods.
“The greenest building is the one that already exists.”
What’s the role of government?
In some respects, the UK industry is at the forefront of the retrofit revolution and boasts some of the finest international examples of building reuse.
However, such innovation remains atypical. At a bigger scale, it tends to be led by property developers with long-term outlooks and expert staff such as British Land, Landsec, and Grosvenor.
At present, many others in the built environment, including SMEs, do not reuse and retrofit buildings as standard as it is typically less profitable in the short term than building a larger replacement building.
Embodied carbon emissions remain unregulated, and measurement and mitigation is typically voluntary.
Meanwhile, the VAT framework actively favours new builds and discourages reuse.
The status quo is holding back the UK from reskilling and training hundreds of thousands of people for the green economy.
The government should remove such barriers so the whole industry can participate in this vital economic transition.
Six Ways Don’t Waste Buildings Will Help
Policies
We will explore and recommend a range of potential policies and financial incentives that will drive the reuse of existing buildings and reduce embodied carbon. These should promote clarity and avoid adding to the planning burden.
Resources
We will share information, collate reports, and record evidence and case studies from across the built environment sector to demonstrate best practice. These can be found in our ‘Resources’ library.
Engagement
We will meet with politicians and policymakers to urge them to support policy change which should be included in their first term of government.
Retrofit
We will demonstrate the case for re-purposing existing commercial buildings and empty housing as high-quality homes.
We face a housing crisis as well as a climate crisis, yet, due to the environmental impact of new build, current government housebuilding targets would see England use up the entirety of its 1.5°C carbon budget on housing alone.
Collaboration
We will work with other organisations in this area, demonstrating how our aims are linked and complementary. There is a groundswell of support across the entire property and built environment sector for this type of action. Click here to see a list of like-minded organisations along with whom we are singing from the same hymn sheet.
Communities
We will engage with communities at a grassroots level to help them amplify the Don’t Waste Buildings message locally. We did this with our case study visits to Letchworth Garden City, Croydon and Birmingham, where we also held a ‘Sustaining the City Summit’, organised by Birmingham City University. Please contact us if you would like to organise a meeting or case study tour in your local area.