The team behind the game-changing new UK Net Zero Buildings Standard (The Standard) said in an update this week that they were on track to start the technical testing phase of The Standard in June, with a view to an industry-wide rollout next year.
In its latest quarterly update, the team revealed that it had received embodied carbon assessments for 800 individual buildings and metered operational data for 3,000 buildings across the UK.
It added that more than 350 people across the industry were contributing directly to the creation of The Standard, which will set out metrics by which net zero carbon performance is evaluated, as well as performance targets and limits that need to be met.
Calling on businesses from across the built environment to support the next stage of The Standard’s development, Clara Bagenal George, chair of the technical steering group, said: “I am very proud of the collaborative work done by the technical steering group over the last year and looking forward to the industry’s responses to our forthcoming technical testing release of ‘The Standard’.”
The news comes just a fortnight after MP Chris Skidmore, chair of the government’s Net Zero Review, hailed the work being done on The Standard at the official launch of Landsec’s first net-zero office scheme, The Forge, in Southwark, London.
At the opening, on Thursday 20 April, Skidmore revealed that the government was considering the introduction of mandatory net zero targets and stressed the need for “a root and branch reorganisation of the standards that puts net zero at the forefront”.
Asked by BE News whether he thought The Standard should be mandatory, he said: “I held a roundtable with the team that are developing The Standard and it is fantastic now that there is that sense of ownership. The last thing I want is for the industry to think that something is being done to them. So having that sense of ownership is really important.”
He reiterated that he favoured mandatory standards, but he did not go so far as to say The Standard itself should be mandatory.
“Yes, we do want mandatory standards, but we want to make sure that the industry can see the outcome,” he said. “When it comes to the construction industry, let’s make sure that when it comes to the SMEs and the supply chain, we set ourselves an achievable ambition. The worst thing we can do is to over promise and under deliver.”
