Green Building Design founder and Director Simon Green was recently interviewed by construction marketing specialists BCM Agency on the sustainable built environment landscape, and its biggest issues and opportunities.

In this forthright discussion, Simon expresses strong views and offers candid insights, painting a picture of sustainability in the sector that is both problematic and cautiously optimistic.

Q. Simon, what would you say is the greatest immediate issue in the sustainable buildings space, and why?

A. The rise in the electricity price cap is simultaneously an opportunity and a knock back for the sustainable building landscape. On the one hand, it will arguably focus property owners and developers more closely on energy efficiency, as this will deliver savings to offset the cost rises.

But on the other hand, it will also highlight the yawning gap between the price of gas and electricity, and as the former is up to five times cheaper than electricity on some tariffs, it’s likely to come out the winner.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: gas is way too cheap in this country; it enables an economic justification for a high-carbon energy source, and that must change.

 

Q. So the electricity price cap rise is, in effect, actively damaging efforts to create a more sustainable built environment?

A. Absolutely, and not just right now – it’s damaging sustainability efforts in the future, too. Many of the technologies that can measurably reduce energy consumption and emissions – air source heat pumps, for example – still need electricity to run.

By making electricity more expensive, we’re making it potentially uneconomical to adopt the efficient heating methods that are absolutely critical in reducing buildings’ emissions, which currently contribute hugely to greenhouse gases in the UK!

 

Q. Will we see any moves by the electricity companies to combat the effects of the price cap rise – and could that lead to more sustainable outcomes?

A. Reintroducing Economy 7 tariffs would enable homes to use electricity at night, when it’s cheapest, to run storage heaters that then release the stored heat during the day. I can see this potentially coming back in some way, shape, or form.

However, it’s not a panacea, because it conflicts to a degree with the most effective use of heat pumps. These consume electricity most efficiently in the afternoon, when the outside heat they harvest is at its highest, so there would unfortunately be a trade-off here.

 

Q. Is the UK guilty of backsliding on other sustainable measures regarding the built environment, too?

A. Yes, particularly as new gas boilers will now continue to be available for use in existing properties, contrary to the original policy.

But it’s not just a problem under this Government. I heard the former leader of the Green Party, Sir Jonathan Porritt, speak at the Specifier Summit recently, and he made the point that if successive Government’s hadn’t watered down the sustainability legislation of the last Labour administration, all the UK’s new homes would now be net zero.

 

Q. What about the proposed changes to minimum EPC and MEES ratings – are they anything to shout about?

A. The simple answer is that we don’t know. Although the Government consultation finished on 26^th February, they are still analysing the feedback received to inform the development and implementation of these proposed reforms.

But as I said in a recent Voices in Construction panel discussion, the EPC software is itself flawed. We’re constantly coming up against this; we make changes to buildings that can raise their energy efficiency by as much as 40% or more, but this barely registers on the EPC scoring system. There’s a lot of scope for improvement, here.

 

Q. Promoting the use of electricity over gas would mean serious power network upgrades. Do you have confidence they will be delivered?

A. No, I have concerns about this, and I’ve written about them recently.

Even without a mass move away from gas towards electricity, typical household electricity use, which used to be rated at 2 - 3kilowatts, (kW), has already risen to 15 kW.

And when you add increased electric vehicle charging into the equation, it very much becomes an infrastructure problem, not just a demand problem. A street full of electric chargers operating overnight could mean the local transformers can’t cool in the night temperatures as they should.

 

Q. Where might attitude to sustainable buildings evolve more readily, and where might we see deadlock?

A. Starting with the deadlock, something urgently must be done to enshrine more stringent sustainability standards into planning policy.

I turned down a job recently that involved refurbishing a block of flats, to sell them on to a local housing association - with an EPCD-rating. In this day and age, that should never have got through planning.

On a more positive note, however, I think there is already a really strong movement towards energy and building performance monitoring systems. This will help drive a focus on bringing each building’s energy consumption figures down, and that will ultimately point to the use of more energy-efficient technologies, materials, and techniques.

For more on how Green Building Design’s services can help building owners and developers hit sustainability and energy efficiency targets, and reduce energy costs, get in touch today.