NEWS & ANALYSIS FMJ.CO.UK
ASSOCIATION NEWS
RICS JOINS COALITION TO CREATE UK NET
ZERO CARBON BUILDINGS STANDARD
Paul Bagust - RICS Head of Property
Standards
8 JUNE 2022
As the most recent
UK Facilities
Management Survey
revealed, FMs are
agreed that a better
understanding of the
data that a building
produces can help
organisations make
informed decisions
and save energy where it’s needed.
This is why we’re pleased to report that RICS
has joined a coalition of built environment and
real estate bodies to develop a comprehensive
and consistent approach to defining and verifying
buildings as net zero.
While progress has been made in recent years
towards creating a consistent definition of ‘net
zero’, the UK Green Building Council recently
conducted a market analysis that highlighted the
need to create a more robust means for measuring
a building’s carbon footprint and verifying it as net
zero.
Following this work, a coalition of leading
industry bodies, RICS, BBP, BRE, The Carbon
Trust, CIBSE, IStructE, LETI, RIBA, and UKGBC,
came together to address this challenge, and
have developed the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings
Standard.
The new UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard
will create a standard model to measure and
validate a building as net zero. The Technical
Standard will be published later this year and is
being overseen by the Technical Steering Group, to
which RICS is a member. The Standard will cover
all building types, including new and existing
builds, and will set out performance targets to
address both operational and embodied carbon
emissions, in line with the UK’s 2035 and 2050
targets. Furthermore, the Standard will also
extend into procurement and residual emission
treatment such as carbon o setting – allowing for
a compressive assessment of an asset’s carbon
impact.
RICS and its members will be at the forefront
in enabling this Standard to be delivered and
e ective. The RICS developed Whole Life Carbon
Assessment will support surveyors in accurately
measuring and capturing the carbon emissions
associated with a building, with data collected
helping to identify and support a building’s
pathway to net zero.
This data can be inputted into the soon-tolaunch
Built Environment Carbon Database, the
tool designed to become the UK’s main source for
carbon estimations and benchmarking for the real
estate and construction sector.
Furthermore, the Standard will be governed by
the creation of a Governance Board which will
ensure a robust delivery of the Standard and its
strategic goals.
This Standard is the latest announcement as part
of the RICS commitment towards sustainability and
the creation of a low-carbon, energy e icient built
environment. This includes ongoing RICS work
to develop and upskill surveyors to address the
growing need for energy-e iciency and retrofitting,
and the creation of the International Cost
Management Standard 3rd edition – a world first
for cost and carbon management benchmarking in
the construction industry.
Sustainability is perhaps the greatest
challenge to face the built environment and
FM profession and the solutions that must be
developed will require professionals to be at the
heart of them. The FM industry will be central in
developing innovation and collaborative solutions
at a practical
level to
this global
challenge.
For decades, workplace
and FM professionals
have played a critical
role in the sustainability
agenda, but over time the
focus has changed. As the
temperature has risen
literally and metaphorically
on this critical issue, minimising harm to the
environment, such as through waste and energy
management, has become addressing the climate
emergency and benefitting society more widely,
such as through social value.
Last month, we celebrated World FM Day with
a week of activity on its 2022 theme of “Leading
a sustainable future”. IWFM volunteers were busy
hosting online and face-to-face events, and our
Sustainability Special Interest Group published
articles each day discussing the key issues in
that sphere.
In one piece, IWFM Sustainability SIG Chair
Greg Davies puts the challenge plainly: “FM in
organisations directly a ects and influences more
areas of sustainability than any other function. As
workplace and FM became central to organisations’
success over the pandemic, so our profession must
be front and centre if the same is going to be true
for the sustainable future we all need to achieve.
But are we ready for the opportunity?”
Is our profession ready? While I would preface
my answer with an acknowledgement that
continuing professional development, updating
knowledge and upskilling are key critical for
ensuring practitioners stay on top of their game,
my response to that question would be an
emphatic “Yes!”
Another, perhaps even more important question
for me would be, are employers ready?
Based on last year’s IWFM Sustainability Survey,
the evidence is concerning. In the 2021 report’s
foreword, I summarised the findings as follows:
“There appears to be lacking a holistic, longterm
approach in organisations to determining
and delivering the outcomes that meaningful
sustainability action requires. Concerted action is
needed to deliver in this area and for our members
consistently to be in a position to deliver on the role
they are best placed to take.”
However well placed our profession may be,
FMs can only drive the changes and results needed
if they are not restrained by the organisations they
serve.
The 2022 edition of IWFM’s long running
Sustainability Survey will launch this month and
the main question on my mind is whether we will
see a closing of the gap between action and intent
a year on – during which COP26 has added further
pressure on business to meet targets, while the
geopolitical situation and its fallout may be placing
equal but opposite pressure to deal with even more
immediate economic challenges.
We are now about a quarter way through the
“Decade of Action”, so
action must match or
exceed intentions very soon
if we are to avoid disaster.
AGENTS OF CHANGE: FM’S ROLE
IN LEADING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
IWFM CEO, Linda Hausmanis