Code for sustainable buildings consultation
November 28, 2008
The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has launched an online consultation on its proposed Code for Sustainable Buildings to decide whether there is a need for such a code and what form it would take. Comments are invited until 12 December 2008.
The intention is that such a code would help meet the challenges and opportunities posed by sustainability and, in particular, carbon reductions. Sustainability is now a mainstream concern and is seen by many as a core business driver that relates directly to assessments of risk, reputation, value and profit.
Earlier this year, the Government announced a target that all non-domestic buildings should be zero carbon by 2019, based on the recommendations of the 2007 UK-GBC report "Carbon Reductions in New Non-Domestic Buildings". There is also a Government target for 80% reductions in overall carbon emissions by 2050. A new code could help set out a strategy to meet the targets for both 2019 and 2050.
The consultation addresses a number of questions, including:
- What is a sustainable building?
- Is the need to tackle climate change so urgent that cutting carbon emissions must be the overriding issue, instead of trying to balance a wide range of environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability?
- Should we aim for harmonisation of international green building rating tools in order to achieve consistency of comparison around the world?
- What could be the effects of European legislation and standards on the environmental assessment of products and buildings?
The consultation document points out that these questions have not yet achieved a common and generally accepted understanding that enables developers, landlords, owners, occupiers, designers and suppliers to make confident decisions in the pursuit of a more sustainable built environment.
Sustainable buildings are generally defined as those that are efficient in terms of resources like energy and water, have zero or very low emissions of greenhouse gases, contribute positively to society's development and well-being, and contribute positively to the economic performance of their owners and to the national economy.
Using this definition, a Code for Sustainable Buildings could, therefore, promote a common understanding of sustainable buildings, set standards, provide guidance on how to develop sustainable buildings, supply measures to assess sustainability and provide a method of communicating the sustainability credentials of buildings.
Those responding to the consultation are asked, however, to consider whether there are already too many standards, at whom the code should be targeted and whether one code can be applicable across the industry without being too prescriptive. Respondents are also asked to comment on whether a code should focus on new or existing buildings and whether it should cover the behaviour of building occupants too.
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