Warning about non-residential sustainable code

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Aug 23, 2007

The Concrete Centre has warned that any commercial sustainable code must include long-term sustainabiilty.

Whilst welcoming the announcement that BRE and Arup are to examine the feasibility of a non-domestic equivalent of the Code for Sustainable Homes, The Concrete Centre has warned that any commercial sustainable code must not have the same limitations as the domestic code.

The UK Green Building Council (GBC) has brought together BRE and Arup to research the feasibility and potential framework for a non-domestic equivalent of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

The move follows the announcement by Yvette Cooper's, the housing and planning minister, that: "Buildings account for half of the country's carbon emissions".

"We have set ambitious targets for housing and are now determined to make rapid progress on commercial buildings too".

It is expected that the sustainable commercial building code will include an evolution of the BREEAM ratings and ensure that commercial buildings are 'zero carbon enabled' by putting infrastructure in place to achieve low energy and water use.

The Code for Sustainable Homes was launched last year but according to The Concrete Centre it was a missed opportunity in several areas.

"By concentrating on the embodied CO2 impact of construction materials and not the far greater on-going operational CO2 emissions of homes, the Code for Sustainable missed a very important point", said Guy Thompson, head of housing and sustainability at The Concrete Centre.

"In addition, the Code failed to take account of issues such as transportation, the impact of climate change on temperatures and whole life performance".

It is the confusion between environmental and long-term sustainability that Thompson believes is the main failure of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

"The impact of a building should be measured through its lifetime operation and serviceability not just through the embodied energy of the materials used to construct it", he said.

"We hope that the proposed non-residential sustainable code will take full account off all environment and long-term sustainability issues.".