The UK Green Building Council is launching a new research project that will tackle the way industry currently designs, constructs and operates non-domestic buildings.
Examining industry approaches, tools and behaviours, the group will focus on how to maximise building performance, not just in energy terms, but also other aspects of performance that impact both the building user and the wider environment.
This important new piece of work emerged from the UK-GBC Steps to 2019 Task Group that was looking at how to ensure the zero carbon policy for new non-domestic buildings would be deliverable in 2019. The Government's scrapping of the zero carbon new buildings policies meant the group quickly refocussed on how the industry can deliver better building performance and more reliable outcomes, asking: how much of the carbon that the zero carbon policy would have saved could be saved by delivering more reliable performance?
The research, sponsored by BuroHappold, Saint-Gobain and Tarmac Group, will work with UK-GBC members to explore what companies are already doing to address the issue of building performance, seek out best practice, and to identify gaps and barriers that need to be overcome across the whole industry.
Julie Hirigoyen, CEO of the UK-GBC said: "I am delighted that UK-GBC members are supporting this important piece of work. Huge cost, carbon and productivity benefits can be gained through a closer focus on the performance of buildings as we design, construct and operate them. Following the COP21 deal, this is just one of the ways in which the UK industry is showing its leadership and ambition."
