We need to move to a new way of thinking, working, and delivery; a circular economy must be part of the equation. We must revaluate the way we think about and approach the building cycle by considering everything from design all the way to end-of-life planning.

In recent years, materials passports have gained prominence in the built environment sector for their use in promoting circularity, climate mitigation, and waste reduction. These ‘passports’ digitally store key information on construction materials and products, supporting the recovery and reuse of these materials over their life cycle. In the built environment sector, these lifecycle documents act as a tool for data and understanding end-of-life options for materials. By digitally logging the trajectory of these components, materials passports are crucial in unlocking circularity and promoting material reuse in the built environment.

Materials Passports Practical Guide

Our practical guide covers key principles of materials passports, such as why they’re important, key considerations, key stakeholders to engage with, and more.

Download the Practical Guide here

Materials Passports Information Reference Guide

Our information reference guide is mainly aimed at clients, design teams, contractors, and manufacturers. It outlines the way in which materials passports will be most beneficial and which data/information is considered essential, recommended, and optional to include in a passport.

Download the Reference Guide here

What are material passports and what are the benefits of using them?

UKGBC’s Clare Wilde reflects on the role of material passports in driving a circular economy within our built environment.

Read Clare’s blog

Circular Economy

The built environment needs to move away from the linear economy and embrace circularity. This will reduce waste, carbon emissions and our impact on the natural world.

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Home Retrofit

With time running out to keep global temperatures to 1.5 degrees, upgrading the nation’s homes is one of the biggest opportunities the UK has to reduce carbon emissions whilst tackling the cost-of-living crisis, energy security and levelling up.

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Policy & Advocacy

UKGBC works with our members and with policymakers at all levels across the UK to advocate for a built environment that meets the challenges of the climate and ecological crises

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‘Embodied Carbon: Scope 3 Measurement and Reporting’ seeks to align organisational GHG Scope 3 reporting and project-based embodied carbon assessments to show how establishing a coherent link can support emissions reductions efforts. The guidance demonstrates that integrating embodied carbon assessments directly within Scope 3 reporting would represent an easier, more centralised and more detailed solution than typical practices for GHG Protocol reporting.

To do so, the report outlines guidance for various stakeholders:

• How Developers, Owners, Contractors, Facilities Managers can use embodied carbon assessments to report Scope 3 emissions across an asset’s lifetime,
• How Architects and Engineers should adopt a project-based emissions disclosure for embodied carbon, due to the challenge of designing embodied carbon emissions that do not easily fit within the GHG Protocol.

Advancing Net Zero Partners

Our Advancing Net Zero work is made possible thanks to our programme partners

Embodied Carbon Project Partners

Our Embodied Carbon measurement and reporting project is made possible due to the generous support of our project partners.

Advancing Net Zero

Created in 2018 as part of a World Green Building Council initiative, UKGBC’s Advancing Net Zero programme has a mission to lead the UK’s transition to a net zero built environment. It has produced leading guidance such as the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Framework and the Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap, whilst working with organisations and experts across the industry.

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Embodied carbon is being increasingly factored into how we design, build, maintain, and treat the end-of-life of our built assets. Embodied carbon also makes up 20% of the UK’s built environments’ carbon emissions so it is important we are able to accurately understand the carbon impact of the building materials and design choices made across an asset’s lifetime.

To increase the accuracy of embodied carbon assessments this report provides guidance on the embodied carbon modelling and reporting processes to enable greater transparency and clarity. This will enable a better understanding of the embodied carbon of our built assets and hopefully lead to a more informed decision process on the carbon impact.

Advancing Net Zero Partners

Our Advancing Net Zero work is made possible thanks to our programme partners

Embodied Carbon Project Partners

Our Embodied Carbon measurement and reporting project is made possible due to the generous support of our project partners.

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They are designed to be used by a range of built environment stakeholders, and throughout combine both mandatory, and UKGBC best practice principles.

Resilience & Nature Programme Partners

With thanks to our programme partners who make our work on nature possible.

Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain Project Partners

Our work on Biodiversity Net Gain and Environmental Gain is generously supported by the following organisations.

Biodiversity/ Environmental Net Gain

Embracing and adding to biodiversity on site is vital as we work to reverse the biodiversity crisis.

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UKGBC has published a short report for built environment professionals that focuses on breaking down barriers to funding and financing options.

The biodiversity market – and the global economy more broadly – is fundamentally embedded in nature, which makes financial interventions to fund BNG a sound and potentially lucrative investment. Yet estimates predict a funding gap of between £44 and £97 billion. UKGBC’s report aims to de-mystify the specific barriers to funding in order to encourage and enable the financing needed to recognise the immense opportunities offered by BNG.

Aided by bespoke graphics, the report maps the types of considerations that could apply to organisations and funders hoping to invest in restoring nature and biodiversity in the UK.

Resilience & Nature Partners

Our climate change adaptation work is supported by our Resilience & Nature Partners.

Biodiversity and Environmental Net Gain Project Partners

Our work on Biodiversity Net Gain and Environmental Gain is generously supported by the following organisations.

Biodiversity/ Environmental Net Gain

Embracing and adding to biodiversity on site is vital as we work to reverse the biodiversity crisis.

View more

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Fully decarbonising the electricity system by 2035 is central to delivering Net Zero in the UK. With buildings responsible for over 60% of the UK’s national electricity demand, the built environment industry has a critical role to play in achieving this target, and the way electricity is procured for our buildings can accelerate our transition to a reliable, resilient, and zero carbon grid.  

This guidance from UKGBC on Renewable Energy Procurement seeks to empower stakeholders tasked with procuring energy in the built environment to do so in a way that enables them to realise their climate ambition, while supporting the continued decarbonisation of the electricity supply sector. Across a suite of guidance documents, UKGBC’s series of reports gives industry the tools to make more informed procurement decisions.

Download the Summary Report

All Reports

Summary Report

The summary report brings together the key conclusions, guidance, and recommendations from the other reports. It gives an overview of the information to help users identify which documents will be most useful and relevant for them.

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Report 1 – Key actions for built environment stakeholders

Report 1 outlines what stakeholders need to do, providing both general recommendations to secure procurement that aligns with the principles for quality renewable electricity procurement. It also identifies actions different consumer types can take today and in future to help support the market evolution needed to enable the electricity system’s decarbonisation.

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Report 2 – Options available in market

There are many routes through which built environment stakeholders can procure their electricity. The accessibility of these routes to different consumers varies substantially, and each contributes differently to decarbonising the grid. Report 2 summarises the various procurement routes available in the market and the factors that may affect a built environment stakeholder’s ability to engage in them. It also describes the range of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) variants available and introduces relevant guidance when considering a direct contract with a renewable generator.

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Report 3 – Determining the performance of your electricity strategy

Report 3 introduces tools for engaging energy suppliers to enable better assessment of the options available in the market. It also defines a methodology for scoring the performance of a building’s electricity strategy, including procurement as well as onsite generation and demand management. This enables all stakeholders to benchmark their current strategy, assess prospective strategies, and understand the incremental changes they can make to secure procurement and manage their buildings in a way that accelerates our transition to a resilient, decarbonised electricity system.

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Report 4 – The role of the built environment in decarbonising the UK’s electricity system

Report 4 outlines why decarbonising the electricity system is critical in delivering against our national Net Zero target, and explores the challenges in doing so as we move to electrify heat and transport and transition from fossil fuels to intermittent renewable power. It summarises the energy markets, the principles of good quality procurement that can help drive this transition, and the evolution in approaches to energy management and the energy products being offered that are required to enable a resilient, decarbonised electricity grid. It describes the sources of emissions that result from the consumption of electricity and covers approaches to account for these emissions.

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Advancing Net Zero Partners

Our Advancing Net Zero work is made possible thanks to our programme partners

Project partners

With thanks to our Embodied Carbon Project Partners who make this work possible.

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In March 2021, UKGBC published the Renewable Energy Procurement and Carbon Offsetting Guidance for Net Zero Carbon Buildings. Now two years on, the landscape in which the initial carbon offsetting guidance was published has evolved significantly.

This report aims to provide comprehensive guidance on voluntary carbon offsetting and pricing strategies that are specifically tailored for built assets (both new and existing) and to better equip those who purchase offsets or make investment decisions at building asset or organisational level to align with their climate goals and accelerate the wider transition of net zero.

The report highlights how carbon pricing can be used as a powerful mechanism to accelerate the decarbonisation of built assets and the wider industry. It is also stresses the need for greater ambition when setting an internal carbon price, given the cost of accredited carbon credits on the voluntary market don’t accurately reflect the full societal and economic cost of emitting carbon into the atmosphere.

Key aspects of the guidance include:

 

• In recognition of a rapidly changing carbon market, the publication sets out three levels of ambition industry should work towards, with guidance to develop a pathway to adopt a leading approach.
• A step-by-step process to enable real estate developers and investors to take a more holistic approach to ambitious carbon offsetting, which goes beyond basic procurement of voluntary offset credits.
• Provides all practitioners with the vocabulary to describe key offsetting and internal carbon pricing terminology and principles.

June 2024 Update

UKGBC has updated our popular ‘Carbon Offsetting and Pricing Guidance’ in line with new industry frameworks to ensure the integrity and impact of carbon offsetting within the built environment.

• This update reflects recent updates to the University of Oxford’s Revised Oxford principles for net zero aligned carbon offsetting(Oxford Offsetting Principles) and the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s Core Carbon Principles, Assessment and Assessment Procedure.
• Using the revised Oxford Offsetting Principles, UKGBC’s guidance contains a terminology change away from ‘short-lived storage’ and ‘long-lived storage’ to ‘higher risk of reversal’ or ‘lower durability storage’ and ‘lower risk of reversal’ or ‘higher durability storage’. This recognises that durability and risk of reversal are on a continuum.
• The updated guidance contains updated graphics to reflect terminology changes and new graphics in the Oxford Offsetting Principles.
• Carbon prices have been updated to follow HM Green Treasury book and show a range of prices rather than a single figure.

“While absolute emission reductions should always be the priority, offsetting is a fundamental part of any net zero transition plan. We’ve seen too many examples of this done badly and UKGBC’s guidance will help companies ensure they’re purchasing high quality offsets that support communities and positive outcomes – a win for the planet and the maturity and credibility of the offset market. We know that companies with science-based decarbonisation pathways that also commit to purchasing carbon offsets reduce emissions faster than those who don’t. We have an opportunity as a sector to take real leadership in this space and offset today what we cannot reduce, so that together we can accelerate the UK’s pathway to net zero.”

Andy Haigh Director, Climate Positive Solutions Grosvenor

Advancing Net Zero Partners

Our Advancing Net Zero work is made possible thanks to our programme partners

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The Playbook demonstrates how protecting nature and enhancing resilience can, and should, be embedded into decision-making at every level.

The ‘Nature Recovery & Climate Resilience Playbook’ presents local authorities and planning officers with a comprehensive toolkit to enhance the sustainability of new and existing development, in order to support both biodiversity and climate resilience using nature-based solutions. It aims to promote a consistent, user-friendly approach to sharing best practice, that will enable authorities to benefit from shared learning, common resources, and mutual confidence; whilst also providing stability for industry around the requirements expected from it across different parts of the country.

This resource has been designed to be used and adapted to support the ‘day job’ of officers, as well as elected members with responsibility for sustainability, planning and regeneration within different authorities. For example, it can be used to inform planning policy in relation to the new development, to enable positive engagement with developers who want to support an authority’s aspirations, as well as support local strategy development and target setting.

The Playbook demonstrates how protecting nature and enhancing resilience can, and should, be embedded into decision-making at every level within local government. It offers interventions at various levels of decision-making across housing and planning strategies, from cross boundary collaboration with neighbouring authorities to local planning policy. The toolkit also identifies a number of no-regrets planning interventions that can deliver immediate positive impact, such as requiring bee bricks, swift and bat boxes. It also illustrates how wider environmental and socio-economic objectives can be delivered across local areas through prioritising biodiversity.

Whilst local action to secure resilience and protect nature is critical, the Playbook also notes how local government’s ability to drive sustainable development in their area must be accompanied with stronger national policy. The Playbook therefore calls for strong national policy, which sets out clearly a future trajectory of escalating minimum standards – which local authorities can move in advance of, if they choose to, whilst maintaining consistency in terms of metrics and approach. The toolkit notes how a patchwork of different standards in different locations is challenging for developers, therefore attempts to balance the need for consistency with the need to enable local government to set suitably ambitious policy.

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With approximately 70% of the UK’s non-residential building stock constructed before the year 2000, if energy and carbon targets are to be achieved, and the UK’s 2050 net zero targets realised, significant energy efficiency and embodied carbon reductions are needed. As a result, much of the sector will have to undergo some form of retrofit by 2050.  

Any stakeholder group with the intention of supporting the successful delivery of net-zero focussed retrofit projects will benefit from the following guidance.  

The guide summarises the fundamental considerations for retrofit projects to support the drive towards net zero carbon in our existing commercial building stock. It includes:  

• Definitions for light and deep retrofits   
• 10 key considerations for net zero carbon focused retrofits projects to support net zero pathways and goals 
• Real-world case studies, exemplifying the importance of these considerations and the benefits low carbon focused retrofits can have in the advancing net zero goals. 

This foundation guidance sets out to address the issue of establishing a level of consistency, but UKGBC will be producing further guidance to support the industry, focussing in more detail on the practical implications of achieving net zero focussed commercial retrofits. Learn more here.

If you have any questions about this publication, any of the upcoming workstreams relating to commercial retrofit, or would like to provide feedback, please email ANZ@UKGBC.org. 

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