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Green Building - an industry driving itself ? |
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18 May 2012, 11:37 AM
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The growth in the number of Green Building Councils (GBCs) and the impact this is having on the construction industry cannot be overlooked. As the UK Green Building Council celebrates its 5th birthday, Paul King talked to Skanska about his take on the reasons behind this growth.
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Houghton Health Centre - one of 2011's highest scorers under BREEAM.
"Green Building Councils (GBCs) have experienced exponential growth all over the globe with the number on the ground rising from just 26 to 90 councils in just five years" says King. "But what is perhaps most interesting about this is that growth has not been driven by government intervention. All GBCs have grown through grass-root private sector organisations led by the people who see the trend towards green buildings increasing and recognise the growing evidence of policy, regulation and customer demand for low carbon buildings."
King believes that it is in fact the industry that is driving itself, moving at a speed that is one step ahead of government expectation.
Green motivators – the 4 "R"s
So what are the motives behind this level of growth? Paul King says that these can be categorised into the four "R"s. "There are a range of different motivators that are driving companies to occupy green buildings and display their green credentials:
Reputation: Companies looking to differentiate themselves and win in a challenging market by wearing their green credentials.
Risk: Mitigating future risk posed by new changes to regulation and environmental policy.
Reward: Capitalising on the reduced energy costs and improved productivity associated with green work spaces.
Right thing to do: Normally constituting all of the above."
In order to improve you must measure
To continue moving at this rate, King believes that it is essential to measure the performance of sustainable buildings. However, the continuity of the rating systems that are currently in existence is something that needs to be addressed.
"Many GBCs have grown up with and around rating systems that currently range from national schemes to globally recognised ones. The challenge here is translating the already established national rating systems across to a global market. There is an increasing desire for large companies to be able to compare all building stock by using one international standard."
There is a real need to develop a harmony across all rating systems to accommodate for this however, without any shared methodologies, this will be very difficult. Globally, GBC's are currently working with rating scheme providers to address how common metrics can be embedded whilst still ensuring each can coexist."
Alongside this, there is also the issue as to how well a building's rated performance actually compares to its performance in use. The gap between the two is something that Paul King is all too aware of.
"What is increasingly being referred to as 'mind the performance gap', defined as the difference between how we assume the building will perform and how it actually performs, can be greatly affected by a number of factors. These can include differences in construction techniques and the behaviours of the tenants who occupy it - things that can be very difficult to predict. There is much more that needs to be done to manage green assets more appropriately."
In early 2011 the UK-GBC made the case for a mandatory roll-out of Display Energy Certificates to try and address this common issue.
King says "GBCs strongly believe that we have to get to a point where we routinely produce display energy certificates, based on the actual amount of metered energy used by the building, to work to close this gap"
Rio+20
"Looking ahead, one of the big things that will come out of Rio is an increasing emphasis on cities – with a focus shift from individual buildings to places. With an increasing proportion of the global population residing in urban areas there is a great deal of potential for our cities to become more sustainable places" says King who believes that in the future, action towards sustainability will be driven through city level initiatives rather than national ones.
Blue sky is the limit for green building
"During the recession, many people predicted that sustainability would be put on the backburner. This has not happened and the agenda has remained strong."
"The UKGBC has increased its levels of membership year on year and our member retention remains over the 95% mark. Looking at GBCs around the world, the amount of growth shows resilience even in the face of economic onslaught."
"Being green has now moved beyond the era of 'eco-bling' and is increasingly about embedding sustainability in good practice, often in the form of passive measures that are not very visible at all," concludes King.
"Sustainability is becoming an important part of 'future quality' for buildings."
Skanska, is a supporter of the Built Environment Hub
Credits:: Skanska - The Guardian
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