{"id":118398,"date":"2022-11-14T15:36:50","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=118398"},"modified":"2022-11-14T15:36:50","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:36:50","slug":"energy-efficiency-crisis-catalysing-uk-green-buildings-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/energy-news\/energy-efficiency-crisis-catalysing-uk-green-buildings-demand\/118398\/","title":{"rendered":"How the energy efficiency crisis is catalysing UK green buildings demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

With soaring bills and supply concerns putting the focus on the energy efficiency crisis, Nick Jacobs, executive managing director of Taurus UK, looks at the key drivers of green buildings<\/h2>\n

With the UK bracing for the first of two likely winters with \u201cchallenged\u201d energy supplies, Britons are looking to cut their consumption wherever they can. And with the built environment representing about 40% of the UK\u2019s energy consumption<\/a>, buildings are a primary target. Even as energy subsidies palliate monthly bills\u2019 short-term punch, climate and geopolitical climate concerns have British tenants demanding their buildings consume less fossil fuel \u2013 and quickly.<\/p>\n

Energy efficiency crisis: Planning for today and tomorrow<\/h3>\n

This desire manifests with two trends: efficiency and electrification. First, efficiency: tenants want buildings that can power their lives and businesses as usual, but with less energy \u2013 both overall and, especially, with minimal oil and gas.<\/p>\n

This demand for independence from the geopolitics of foreign tankers and pipelines leads us to the second trend: electrification. Tenants want to source their energy \u201clocally\u201d \u2013 whether from the grid or from onsite generation. These changes, the thinking goes, can insulate their energy access from current and future geopolitics.<\/p>\n

This desire for energy independence dovetails with the national push for energy decarbonisation. With the UK committed to Net Zero by 2050<\/a>, and over 60% of urban emissions (78% in London) attributable to buildings<\/a>, decarbonising residential, commercial and industrial real estate will be one of the coming decades\u2019 principal challenges, and increasing energy efficiency is the first step towards this goal.<\/p>\n

The second step, electrification, is less a step towards sustainability today than preparation for sustainability tomorrow, as the UK grid \u2013 currently, 57% fossil fuels is set to be net zero<\/a>, with a 93% reduction in actual emissions, by 2050<\/a>. In the meantime, new build, fully electrified, energy-efficient buildings linked to the current grid will be required to emit 75% less carbon in 2025<\/a> than a comparably sized, non-retrofitted building today.<\/p>\n

British public demand more sustainable infrastructure<\/h3>\n

While governments and businesses set decarbonisation targets, perhaps the biggest push for more sustainable infrastructure comes directly from the British public. 82% say they are concerned or very concerned about climate change<\/a>, up from 65% in 2012<\/a>. This trend is true across demographics but stronger in younger generations, peaking at 85% for people younger than 34.<\/p>\n

Taken together, these figures indicate that developers\u2019 prospective tenants take their sustainability seriously – and that seriousness will only increase as younger generations grow into greater responsibility. Investment in a building\u2019s sustainability<\/a>, in other words, is paramount to its retaining value over time.<\/p>\n

Already, developers are getting the message: the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors\u2019 2022 Sustainability Report found that 65% of [UK] contributors note that occupier demand for green buildings has rise<\/a>n over the past 12 months, a figure similar to that of investor demand (66%). Similarly, the UK Green Construction Industry\u2019s 2021 report predicted an annual sector growth rate of 9.8% between 2021 and 2025.<\/p>\n

Retrofitting will be instrumental in solving the energy efficiency crisis for housing stock<\/h3>\n

However, greening new construction<\/a> is but a fragment of the solution: new buildings will only ever comprise some 20% of housing stock. Consequently, the twin aims of household energy reduction and reduced global carbon footprint will be forced to centre on energy-efficiency retrofits.<\/p>\n

Property owners and developers who want to act on this growing demand can think of retrofits in four steps:<\/h4>\n