New guide launched to cut public sector building emissions
The government has launched a new guide to decarbonising public sector buildings and creating a net zero public estate.
The Net Zero Estate Playbook aims to make national infrastructure greener by giving departments, the public sector, and government property professionals clear guidance on the design, implementation, and monitoring of net zero strategies and delivery programmes.
The public sector estate – which includes offices, hospitals, prisons and job centres – is Britain’s largest property portfolio and generates 2% of the UK’s total emissions. The government has pledged to reduce direct public sector emissions by 50% by 2032, against a 2017 baseline.
Retrofit measures
The playbook is aimed at both existing and new properties and includes definitions for net zero carbon buildings in operation, as well as construction.
It sets out the steps that should be included in a roadmap to net zero, and gives guidance on how to reduce operational energy use, including ‘no regret’ efficiency measures such as LED, BMS and building fabric improvements, low-carbon heat technologies such as heat pumps, and renewable generation such as PV and wind. It also recommends the installation of sub-metering across estates to give a more detailed picture of how, where and when energy is being used.
New Greening Government Commitments
Last month the government also published new Greening Government Commitments for 2021 to 2025, which set out the actions UK government departments will take to reduce their environmental impacts. The updated framework sets more stretching targets for government departments on the core areas of emissions, water, waste and domestic flights, and also changes the target baseline year from 2009 – 2010 to 2017 -2018.
At Concept, we’re helping many public sector organisations take a ‘whole systems approach’ to decarbonising their estates. We can help you at every stage of the journey, from initial scoping exercises through to recommendation of options and project implementation. If you’d like advice, get in touch, or learn more about what we do.
