What steps need to be taken to reach net zero carbon?
The first step is understanding internally where the key stakeholders stand when it comes to net zero, and the benefits and challenges of setting a net zero pathway.
The next step is determining your level of ambition. Not all organisations will want to be ambitious. Some will want to keep up with the market, so it’s about being able to lay that out at the start so you can rely on your strategy with that.
The third step is referring to the key guidance and credible experts to determine what a net zero pathway looks like. Previously, there has been a lot of greenwash and a lack of clarity around what net zero means.
Monique Goyens is director general of BEUC, the European consumer organisation.
Europe’s building stock currently accounts for 36% of European greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing this will mean future-proofing our homes by thoroughly renovating them. But the complexity and expense of doing so is holding many people back.
As part of Europe’s Green Deal and the EU’s post-COVID recovery strategy, the so-called ‘Renovation Wave’ aims to bring Europe’s building stock into the 21st century by making it more climate resilient. The Strategy aims to at least double renovation rates in the next decade.
However, to be aligned with the Paris Agreement, annual renovation rates will need to quadruple, and deep retrofits – that ensure the biggest energy savings – at least tenfold. This is a massive undertaking.
Cost of Test to Release
SIR – Covid-19 Day 2 and Day 8 PCR tests and the Test to Release scheme on Day 5, for international arrivals, seem like a money-making scheme penalising those trying to get back to work.
I received an email informing me that, because my Day 8 falls on the Bank Holiday this weekend, I must spend longer in quarantine or self-isolation, as the results will be delayed.
Imagine my surprise when, at the end of the email telling me that I had been affected, I was offered a 30 per cent reduction on the Day 5 Test to Release, by which I could be released from isolation earlier, as an alternative to spending longer in quarantine.
This was followed by Belfast and Cardiff, both scoring 5.1.
Over 4 in 5 (85)% Brits say they are concerned about climate change, with more than half (52%) admitting to being ‘very concerned’.
Overheating and humidity, storm damage and an expected temperature rise were noted as the top negative impacts on properties.
Looking to the Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s) of homes, Bungalows prove to be the most efficient type of housing.
Just under two-thirds (59.8%) of bungalows in the UK have an EPC rating between A-C. That’s the highest of any type of housing.
Houses come in second, with two fifths (41.3%) of structures having a good or very good EPC rating (EPC A-C) followed by just over a third (31.42%) of flats.
By Mike Prew2021-04-22T00:00:00+01:00
As Morticia Addams, the fictional 1930s cartoon character from The New Yorker, observed: “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” You can’t self-isolate against climate change and behind the three ‘Rs’ of reflation, reopening and reoccupation, buildings are going green fast.
For REITs that think building wellness and energy efficiency credentials are just a box-ticking exercise, it may already be too late. They risk seeing their equity in 20th century buildings playing in injury time, ultimately to be stretchered off the pitch in 21st century markets.