The sustainability and energy teams have worked on a number of exciting projects this year and are pleased to see the industry pushing forward through the launch of the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard and the RICS Professional Statement Version 2 for embodied carbon in the last six months.
We’re currently applying these new standards on two major office refurbishment projects in central London. These are at early design stages and we’re pleased to be working with the design teams to incorporate carbon and energy considerations in early design optioneering work. We’re also reviewing the buildings from a circular economy perspective to identify opportunities for reusing existing materials such as steel framing, window frames and lighting, amongst others. These projects are following the NABERS Design for Performance approach, with ambitious targets that we are working with the design team to achieve in the buildings. It involves using advanced operational energy modelling to ensure energy consumption is predicted as accurately as possible in line with the way the buildings will be used and using the modelling to inform design decisions to achieve the required energy performance in operation.
We’ve worked on several projects integrating building certifications as a means of tracking sustainability progress against targets including BREEAM, HQM and WELL, with health and wellbeing considerations becoming an increasing desire for clients. We’ve worked with the University of Essex to achieve BREEAM certification on their new student accommodation blocks and are currently working on a number of other projects across all sectors including office, retail, hotel, industrial and education.
Imperial College London
Greengage has continued working with Imperial College London to drive sustainability at their White City Campus. Back in 2023, we produced a Sustainable Buildings Design Brief and Strategy, incorporating rigorous KPIs aligned with industry benchmarks. Working together with Imperial, we established a framework that would deliver a new campus that exemplifies innovation and sustainability. This year, as Sustainability Coordinator for the White City Campus masterplan, we’ve been actively tracking performance across individual plots, collaborating with sustainability leads at Imperial to ensure goals are met or exceeded. We look forward to continuing this work in 2025.
Sharing expertise
As well as sitting on several industry working groups, we’re also pleased to be able to share our expertise with others. In September, we delivered Carbon Literacy training to Women in Property members. Accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project, this course provided participants with insights into reducing carbon emissions associated with the built environment sector.
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD)
We have also started working with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD), providing carbon and energy specialist support. Our role will include providing specialist support on energy and overheating matters at pre-application meetings, support in the discharge of energy and carbon obligations, facilitating energy and carbon workshops and collaborating with the planning department to develop a simple sustainability checklist. We will also be delivering training sessions on energy and sustainability topics to assist with the upskilling of their teams.
