As the spotlight intensifies on the construction industry for its disproportionate contribution to emissions, energy use, and waste, the race to develop and adopt new building materials and methods to accelerate progress to 2050’s net zero targets is well and truly on.

For example, The Building Research Establishment (BRE), the world-leading building science body, has recently publicly exhorted the construction industry to innovate on sustainability in the face of climate change.

At the same time, the World Green Building Council has called for more Governments at COP29 to commit to the Buildings Breakthrough Initiative.

With these and other sustainability challenges and opportunities in mind, GBD Director Simon Green presented at the inaugural 2024 Specifier Summit, organised by construction industry marketing specialists BCM Agency, on 7^th November, where he also participated in an expert speaker panel.

The theme of the event, and of Simon’s presentation, was one of the most pressing in the sector today: Sustainability - at what Cost? What follows is our take on that delicate dynamic.

 

Regulatory changes: what, when, how strict?

At GBD, we’ve long been supportive of stronger regulation to enforce the sustainability agenda in the construction space – but, equally, we’ve been critical of the way regulations like Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard) ratings have undergone goalpost-shifting in the way they are calculated.

But an important point we made at the Summit was that there are, in all probability, forthcoming EPC and MEES changes that, for once, will have real teeth, as from April 2030 it is likely that commercial landlords will no longer be able to rent or sell buildings with an EPC rating inferior to a Bor C.

That’s landlords’ rental revenues set to fall off a cliff if they don’t step up to the mark and get their buildings compliant in time, and though you might think reforms like these would be thoroughly unpopular, in fact the opposite appears to be the case.

In recent industry-wide research from Futurebuild, for example, policy reforms were the single highest-scoring choice of changes that would remove barriers to sustainability in the built environment, with 30.4%saying that industry-wide standards and regulations would drive the industry towards net zero.

 

EPC and MEES compliance: keeping it real

A cautiously positive reception for the ‘stick’ approach, then, but what of the ‘carrot’?

This is where we reemphasised another key factor we’ve written about recently and are currently championing –feasibility.

The work necessary to enable landlords to achieve new EPC and MEES ratings must be realistic, pragmatic, and affordable – only then is it truly feasible.

And we made the point that through this Energy Feasibility approach, landlords aren’t hit with a panoply of costly work that is not immediately necessary, but instead receive a clear roadmap for progressive sustainability actions that are not only financially manageable but will also generate measurable returns from buildings that are far less energy-hungry.

As ever, enlightened self-interest is often a more powerful agent for change than fear, uncertainty, and dread and you can book your EnergyFeasibility Report here.

 

Where do sustainable buildings start?

According to Futurebuild research unveiled at the Summit, what excited many construction professionals most about innovation in the industry were sustainability-related themes like renewables, circular economy products, natural building products, and net zero solutions.

But the same research also showed that cost was the biggest barrier to sustainability adoption, so where and how can that adoption possibly begin?

Real-world use cases and outcomes are key in steering the conversation away from cost here.

Take a low-end air source heat pump, for example. It will be3.5 times more energy-efficient than the newest and most advanced condensing gas boiler, and this inevitably results in far lower carbon emissions.

Insulation, too, is a quick win – in fact, one of the most memorable moments of the Summit was hearing former Green Party leader SirJonathon Porritt berate homeowners who “can’t be bothered to get up a ladder and put insulation in the loft!”

Interestingly, this is one of the increasing number of areas where sustainability and building control now overlap, with increased insulation requirements and airtightness targets under the Future Homes Standard a significant step forward in sustainability for new builds.

 

What’s sabotaging sustainability?

Overly cheap gas is a big issue. Whilst an air source heat pump beats a gas boiler on efficiency and emissions hands-down, gas is just as cheap, per kilowatt hour, as the air source heat pump – and the heat pump comes with installation costs.

We voiced our belief at the Summit that the Government should apply taxes to gas to discourage its use, because until air source heat pumps and gas boilers can compete on a level playing field of running costs, the sustainability benefits make no sense financially.

The issue of financial support also raises its head in Futurebuild’s research, with almost 31% of respondents – the largest for this question – favouring Government incentives as the most effective way to achieve net zero.

The skills shortage, also, became a talking point in our expert panel, with the lack of sustainability training in the industry often leading to sustainable materials and technologies being incorrectly installed and then delivering poor energy efficiency outcomes.

 

Championing sustainable construction in the future

At GBD, we’re committed to working with sustainable technologies and methods to minimise energy use and emissions in both retrofit and new build properties.

This enables landlords to stay compliant, optimise their return on investment, and meet the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)criteria that investors, customers, and partners increasingly demand.

But we also believe the move to sustainability should be realistic, and manageable - and that it should create not only greener buildings, but greater returns.

For this reason, in advance of the planned changes to minimum EPC and MEES ratings we’ve introduced our Energy Feasibility Reports, which help landlords make clear, structured changes to achieve affordable sustainability compliance one step at a time.