Radical Collaboration and Action for the Built Environment - COP26

The Better Building Partnership presented at COP26 in Glasgow on the 4th of November. The BBP were established in 2008; they are a not for profit membership organisation who strive to improve the sustainability of commercial real estate. They achieve this by sharing knowledge, solutions and demonstrating leadership with climate change at the forefront.

Sarah Ratcliffe presented at the conference; she stated that "we must focus initially on reducing energy demand, improving energy efficiency and using renewable energies…offsetting should be used with integrity and as a last resort rather than to greenwash poorly performing buildings".

The discussion with various key stakeholders, including JLL, Legal & General Investment Management, Blackstone and many more, unpicked the current obstacles and highlighted positive progress; this blog aims to summarise some of the key points raised.

We all need to take on a level of responsibility; we need to educate our colleagues why there is a climate emergency and how they can do things differently in their role; this can be done through formal training such as the BBP's programme or in-house training initiatives - we can't just rely on ESG teams to make a difference.

It is time to move beyond words to actions…

Real Estate Investment

We are currently seeing the move from an ingrained, historical carbon economy to a green one – it is a permanent, urgent move that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Investors and landlords can influence outcomes hugely. Understanding risk and investing responsibly in net-zero initiatives is essential. Real estate is a long term investment, everyone across the whole of the process needs to be continuously evolving and thinking ambitiously.

Largely speaking, it is the landlord's responsibility to make changes to their buildings, but there has to be a way of recovering the cost incurred by making buildings more environmentally friendly. If you don't have an occupier with ambition or the willingness to pay for it, it causes an issue and acts as a major barrier.

However, optimistically demand is being generated by occupiers and owners; many are eager to make positive changes. JLL state that within the Office market, 82% of occupiers and employees want to work in a greener, more sustainable environment. This push from the bottom up can be very powerful.

With 1.2 trillion real-estate assets under management part of the race to zero – we can expect the finance sector to drive change.

Managing Risk

The reality is, we don't know the impact of everything yet; installing smart systems and technology into buildings has an element of risk associated with it as it's relatively new, and we don't necessarily know how it will look in 10 years time. But the industry as a whole has to change its position. When you think of the traditional construction process, it is all about mitigating risk; we need to reframe the thinking and consider how we can share the risk and responsibility of assets throughout the lifecycle.

The historical process has got us to this point which isn't healthy – we have a climate crisis, so we have to take a risk and make these changes. However, we need to up-skill extensively across the delivery chain; to achieve this, we need new ways of thinking. The supply-chain is very fractured and a lot could be improved but advisors and agents in particular need to up their game around sustainable strategies and design teams need to be more ambitious, pushing the boundaries and reaching new levels of innovation.

We need to use what we've already got and what is already installed in a building, optimising it and using it to its full potential. We also need to go beyond BIM, using digital, allowing us to understand what has gone into buildings, the processes, the assets and the choices that have been made - providing a full picture.

Investing in Tech

In most instances, we have assets in buildings, and we don't know what framework they were built upon, when they were installed, maintained, etc. Therefore, we have to send in a team to figure out all of this information - this makes the process very slow, inflexible and costly. But by using technology to our advantage and starting at the beginning, we can line up tech with knowing exactly what is in a building - precisely, accurately, cost-effectively and with the lowest environmental impact. You can then look into the future to predict things, look at how buildings could be utilised differently and the wider impact on other buildings and services.

We spoke to Dogu Taskiran about the use of Digital Twins in smart buildings; you can listen to the podcast episode or read the interview.

Technology can only take us so far, but collaboration is needed to drive it forward.

Data

Data is a very powerful tool, but it currently presents a challenge. Lack of standardisation makes data access, sharing and transparency very difficult across buildings. We need to focus on simplicity and integrity to move forward; this cultural change has to happen so that insight can be improved; as a result, energy efficiency will be enhanced.

Retrofitting

As we know, 80% of buildings in use in 2050 have already been built. Buildings are here for the long term, not just a 5 year period - there needs to be more legislation to support this.

Things like insulation, lighting control, hybrid working, circular economy strategies, smart technology and innovation are key to our success.

Green leases provide useful tools to support both owners and occupiers by setting out provisions for the efficient environmental management and improvement of their buildings - creating incentivisation's for occupants and owners to come together.

130 trillion of the world's financial assets are going to be directed into investments that are on the pathway to net zero, which is a massively positive initiative; however, the built environment is responsible for 40% of global emissions - but only 20% of NDC's include it in their efforts.

We have challenges presented in terms of financial mechanisms, skills, data, innovation, valuation, but there is also a lot to be optimistic about. The conversation is louder and stronger than ever; we just need to ensure we take action now and go beyond those words.

As Sarah Ratcliffe summarised, it's "all about radical collaboration the likes of which we have never seen before".