Refurbishment for net zero; a BSRIA white paper

[edit] Upcoming BSRIA Briefing 2024: Sustainable Futures. Redefining Retrofit for Net Zero Living

BSRIA is proud to announce the forthcoming BSRIA Briefing 2024, is to take place on November 22, 2024, at the Brewery, in London. This year's event, themed "Sustainable Futures: Redefining Retrofit for Net Zero Living," promises to be a pivotal moment for the industry as it addresses the pressing need for sustainable solutions in building design and operation.

Amidst global concerns regarding climate change and the imperative to reduce carbon emissions, the built environment stands at the forefront of action. Buildings contribute significantly to carbon footprints, making retrofit solutions a critical pathway to achieving net zero targets. The BSRIA Briefing 2024 aims to shed light on the transformative potential of retrofitting existing buildings, paving the way for a more sustainable future.

[edit] White paper summary

This BSRIA white paper “Refurbishment for Net Zero” summarises the guidance that industry professionals delivered during the summer 2022 BSRIA Conference. It discusses everyday practice in tackling energy efficiency and the ‘fabric first’ approach as well as the ventilation of buildings, air quality, and the wellbeing of building occupants. Attention is also given to the retrofit processes which can help deliver swift progress and positive achievements.

[edit] Free to download

Refurbishment for net Zero (WP 15/2023), was published in April 2023 by BSRIA and written by Aaron Gillich & BSRIA (ISBN: 978-0-86022-799-1). The publication is a free to download publication from the BSRIA bookshop here.

[edit] Introduction to the white paper

BSRIA’s global reach takes conferences beyond geopolitical borders and has an ethos of sharing knowledge. Retrofit of buildings is one of the most serious and complicated topics; it was discussed during BSRIA’s global conference Refurbishment for Net Zero – tackling the challenge, which took place in June 2022, delivering valuable insights that this paper is summarising.

In the UK, there have been changes to Building Regulations, focusing on reduction of energy and carbon emissions. From June 2022 all new build homes in England must emit 30% less carbon than under the previous regulations. The changes for new builds are welcome but are only part of the story and not enough to ensure the pace of the progress needed to achieve national net zero target. Changes in the existing building stock need to accelerate too.

The size of the problem is enormous. There is a need to retrofit around one million homes per year for the next 27 years. The BSRIA global conference addressed the heart of this issue. A range of academic and industry experts presented on the overall context for retrofit and what the built environment must do to make net zero a reality.

This paper summarises the content of the conference across four themes. First, it explores the case for retrofit, why it is important, where we are now, and the drivers for change. Next, it explores the issue of whole life carbon, describing the topics of operational and embodied carbon and some of the tools available for taking a whole life value approach to refurbishment. Thirdly, it gives examples of what is working in terms of both technology and process. This theme covers the opportunities and challenges in practical solutions like heat pumps, as well as the process solutions to deliver them such as performance contracting and Soft Landings. Finally, the theme of performance and wellbeing explores how we can use net zero refurbishment as an opportunity to make buildings more fit for purpose with a focus on indoor environmental quality.

This article appears on the BSRIA bookshop website and newsletter as "Refurbishment for net Zero (WP 15/2023)" dated April 2023 and with the introduction from the publication for further information, for a sample preview of the full download visit the BSRIA bookshop here.

--BSRIA

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings

• BSRIA Briefing 2024: Sustainable Futures. Redefining Retrofit for Net Zero Living.
• Carbon negative.
• Carbon neutral.
• Energy efficiency retrofit training videos.
• Fabric first investigation into net zero for existing buildings.
• Nearly zero-energy building.
• Net Zero All Party Parliamentary Group NZ APPG.
• Net zero building centre with BSRIA and LSBU.
• Net zero by 2050.
• Net zero (whole life) carbon.
• National Refurbishment Centre.
• Remedial works.
• Renovation.
• Renovation v refurbishment v retrofit.
• Restoration.
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• Refurbishment.
• Smoothing the path to net zero.
• Transform to Net Zero.
• The LSBU and BSRIA Net zero building centre, topic guide Net Zero Carbon Buildings.

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