Making Buildings and Cities More Sustainable

There’s a new survey out on sustainability.

Risk consultants, Marsh, in collaboration with the British Property Federation (BPF) and BASE, have undertaken a survey of property and risk management professionals to get an understanding of the scale of the challenge in achieving truly sustainable buildings and cities.

Sustainability is easier to achieve when starting buildings from scratch.

Problem is, two thirds of the building stock that will exist in our cities in 2050 is already standing today.

The challenge of making the entire building stock more sustainable relies heavily on the ability to adapt existing buildings.

In London, for example, buildings are said to be accountable for more than two-thirds of total carbon emissions from the city.

So achieving carbon emission reductions requires changes in behaviour and the retrofitting of energy efficient technology.

One of the things noted in the survey is the increase in recent years in the environmental due diligence carried out before acquiring property.

87 per cent of respondents confirmed they included some elements of environmental performance criteria in their consideration of properties for acquisition.

Energy performance certificate rating is the criterion most often considered – even more than transport, maintenance and flood risk.

The BPF comment that this may be a response to the potential introduction of minimum building energy performance standards.

There’s a risk it will be unlawful to let F and G rated buildings after April 2018, which might account for why these issues are seen as so important.

And while we’re on sustainability – here’s another plug for my post Across the Universe: Notes on Sustainability from SIAM LLP – which looks at SIAM’s findings during a three year period spent analysing the sustainability of several major property portfolios covering all the main property sectors.