Richard Tibenham, business development manager at IES, explores strategies for optimising our existing buildings in a warming world, from designing climate-resilient structures to using digital twins. Discover innovative solutions and their link to corporate responsibility in a changing ESG landscape
It’s no secret that the temperature of our planet is rising at an alarming rate, with recent data showing that 2023 was the hottest year on record.
The issue of climate change has never been more prescient, and we’re acutely aware of the human consequences that failing to reduce our carbon emissions and mitigate rising temperatures could generate.
Buildings are responsible for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions
There are macro risks, such as the physical threats to mortality that extreme weather events such as flooding and droughts pose. However, the effects of climate change also cascade down and pose long-term threats to human health, such as increases in allergens and heat-related illnesses.
The environments in which we surround ourselves play an important role in facilitating or mitigating these effects. It’s a well-known fact that buildings are responsible for 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions. The industry – from policymakers and planners to developers and facilities managers – has a responsibility to help reduce emissions and create healthy environments.
Optimising existing buildings, such as cutting carbon and regulating the temperature of the places in which we live, work, and socialise, will be critical as we face the years to come.
Air quality, temperature, and ventilation in offices, for example, can all impact employees’ physical and mental health – for better or for worse. We need to make changes, fast, to support occupant comfort and well-being before it takes a toll on their health.
How can we optimise our existing buildings for climate mitigation?
As temperatures rise, it will be more important than ever to keep the inside of buildings cool.
But when it comes to creating new buildings, designers are increasingly faced with a myriad of client-driven and regulatory performance targets, which can feel conflicting. For example, the recently released Building Regulations Part O regulations were a positive first step, setting thermal comfort performance targets for new residential buildings. The addition of thermal mass can be beneficial in this regard.
However, this is often at the expense of embodied carbon, which is likely to become a controlled metric under emerging building regulations. As such, it’s important to evaluate the performance trade-offs between design decisions. Having access to a suitably detailed and accurate modelling tool enables designers to evaluate design proposals against the required performance criteria cost-effectively.
But it’s also critical that we look beyond new builds to the UK’s existing building stock, which will require adjustments to cope with rising heat.
Digital twins for developing efficiency
The good news is that there are practical steps that we can take to reduce energy consumption and maintain healthy environments within new and existing buildings.
In the case of existing buildings, digital twins can help navigate the complex choice between re-building or retrofitting, on what would be the most appropriate, cost-effective, and energy-efficient solution in the face of current and emerging regulatory requirements.
Of course, every building is different and will require a unique solution. Reviewing the operational performance of a particular building means landlords can monitor their building’s unique energy consumption habits and make adjustments for optimisation.
Digital models, which are often created in the early stages of a building’s development, can be ‘reawakened’, turned into digital twins, and implemented throughout a building’s entire life cycle.
This enables owners to continuously examine their building’s efficiency, identify ways to reduce energy consumption, and optimise the indoor environment for occupants. Making use of a ‘Sleeping Digital Twin’ can help owners make better-informed decisions on the most energy-efficient ways to keep buildings cool in the face of a warming climate.
It can also enable owners to look at the bigger picture and create more sustainable, long-term plans that future-proof their buildings.
Regulations and corporate responsibility
When it comes to workplaces, it is in an employer’s best interests – and responsibility – to protect their workforce.
Businesses need to provide working environments that are economically efficient to operate, but also comfortable, vibrant, and attractive when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent in the current competitive labour market.
We’ve also seen increasing emphasis in recent years on the need for businesses to be good corporate citizens, largely driven by the rise of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda.
Businesses that fail to consider their impacts on the environment and the people they employ risk compromising their integrity and reputations – not to mention potentially failing to meet new regulations.
This issue is set to shoot up the corporate agenda over the next few years, as research indicates that just one in 10 UK offices built since 2010 would currently meet new minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) which are set to come into force from 2030. What’s more, only 31.6% of commercial building stock is currently in EPC band C or better – the minimum performance standard required by 2027.
Ultimately, our society does have a significant challenge on its hands when it comes to mitigating the harmful human impacts of climate change and maintaining safe residential, commercial, and mixed-use environments.
But by utilising smart tech solutions – which exist but lay dormant for many buildings already – and looking at the long-term, building owners can protect their longevity while supporting people and the planet.
